Farmers’ Socio-Economic Variables and Attainment of Sustainable Development Goal Two in Cross River State, Nigeria 4 0

Abstract

The study focuses on farmers’ socio-economic variables and attainment of sustainable development goal two in Cross River State, Nigeria. To achieve the purpose of the study, two research questions were asked and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The population of this study was 5,681 registered farmers. (Cross River Ministry of Agriculture, 2025), with a sample of 924 selected through a multi-stage sampling approach involving stratified sampling, simple random sampling, and systematic random sampling techniques. The instrument used for data collection was structured questionnaire titled: Socio-economic Variables, Access to Farm Inputs and Attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 2 Questionnaire (SVAFIASDGQ). The instrument was validated by 1 lecturer in the Department of Environmental Education as well as two other lecturers in Measurement and Evaluation, in the College of Education, University of Calabar. The internal consistency of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha coefficient technique. The result of reliability analysis indicates that the reliability estimates ranges from .70 to .88. With this high reliability index, the instrument was deemed fit and used for data collection in the study. Hypotheses were tested using One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) as .05 level of significant. The result of the finding revealed that farmers’ educational level and farmers’ income significantly influenced attainment ofsustainable development goal two in Cross River State, Nigeria. Based on this result, it was concluded that farmers’ socio-economic variables influence attainment of sustainable development goal two. It was recommended among others that Government and relevant agricultural stakeholders should strengthen farmers’ educational programmes through regular training, extension services, and capacity-building initiatives to improve farmers’ knowledge of modern agricultural practices, sustainable production methods, and effective farm management.