Influence of Adoption of Modern Family Planning by Rural Women on Arable Crop Production in Southeast Nigeria

The study assessed the influence of adoption of family planning by rural women on Arable crop production in Southeast Nigeria. The average rural women in Southeast Nigeria delivers between six to nine children but with the emphasis of the Federal Ministry of Health on adoption of family planning, the number has drastically reduced, hence the need to investigate the influence on Arable crop production. Specifically the study examined the Socioeconomic factors that influence the adoption/use of family planning, identified the methods of family planning available in the area, identified the adopters and non-adopters of family planning methods, examined the relative number and percentages of users of various family planning methods, identified the arable crops cultivated by rural women in the area, determined the farm output of adopters and the non-adopters and determined the income derived from arable crop production by adopters and non-adopters. The study hypothesized that there is no significant difference in arable crop production by adopters and non-adopters of the family planning methods. Sample size comprised one hundred and eighty (180) arable crop farmers selected using a multistage sampling method. Structural questionnaire was the main tool for data collection. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools, multiple regression was used to estimate the influence of women socio-economic characteristics on adoption of family planning. The result shows the coefficient of multiple determination (R2) to be 89.80% and was statistically significant at 1% level of probability. 98.89% of the women identified pepper/salt solution as the most available traditional method of family planning and condom (99.44%) as the most available modern method. Most of the women (67.22%) did not adopt, majority of the women cultivate vegetable, cassava and maize (99.44%, 97.78% and 96.67%) respectively. The mean annual farm income of adopters of family planning was N110, 500.00 while that of non-adopters was N201,700.00, the t-value of 2.464 compared with the computed value of 2.253 indicates that the t-value is greater than the table value at 0.5%, therefore the null hypothesis was rejected. The study concludes that adoption of family planning had negative effect on arable crop production, therefore, the study recommends among others that adopters of modern family planning should engage more technology in farming to enhance their output and income, instead of relying on traditional methods of using family labour which include use of child labour.