Factors Affecting Oil Palm Production in Ondo State of Nigeria

The discovery of crude oil and the civil war adversely affected oil palm production in Nigeria. This has resulted in scarcity and high cost of palm products and palm oil. The study therefore investigated the factors influencing oil palm production in Ondo State, Nigeria. One hundred and fifty respondents were selected from predominantly oil palm producing areas through purposive sampling technique. The findings of the study showed that 13.3% of the oil palm farmers complained of planting adulterated seedlings obtained from MANR/ADP/NIFOR nurseries. More than half (53.3%) transplanted seedlings less than ten months of age. Regression analysis showed that only two of the variables; level of education attained (0.043), number of times the respondents attended training (0.054) were predicted to have significant relationship with the yield of oil palm. In conclusion, more than half of the oil palm farmers (53.3%) transplanted seedlings less than ten months of age while some of the seedlings obtained were adulterated. This study recommends that farmers should be assisted to obtain seedlings that have been established very well in the nursery which are ten months and above. Efforts should be made to create awareness to farmers on the need to establish the seedlings very well before transplanting by agricultural extension agents.