Abstract

Rapid Rural Appraisals (RRA) were conducted among one hundred and fifty five farmers in rice growing areas of Obafemi/Owode and Ifo Local Government Areas of Ogun State in South-West of Nigeria to investigate farmers’ practices of growing rice in rice/cassava intercropping system in 2007. The farmers in these villages cultivated 2 to 4 farms with an average farm size of about 2 ha. Results from the RRA showed that the farmers have been growing rice for over 21 years. About 31% of the farmers grow WAB 189- B-B-B-6-HB, 19% grow ITA 150 and I8% grow ITA 321 while 11% grow local variety ‘Ofada’. About 58% of the farmers practice intercropping and 41% of them intercrop rice with cassava. As 72% of the farmers introduced their cassava one week after the planting of rice and the most commonly used cassava variety is MS6. Also 10.9% of the farmers intercropped rice with vegetable as 40.6% intercropped the same rice with cassava.

Key words: Intercropping, rice, cassava, rapid rural appraisal (RRA).