Assessing the consequences of technological change on farm enterprises in southeastern Nigeria by use of factor analysis

Technological change has affected most aspects of farm enterprises in Nigeria in the past few decades with many positive and negative consequences on the entrepreneurs. The study investigated the extent of this change and the effect on rural farm enterprises in southeastern Nigeria. It also attempted assessing the technical changes in relation to the perceived negative consequences to find out if the changes were neutral and/or biased to those consequences. Data were collected from 200 farm entrepreneurs from four out of nine states of southeastern Nigeria by the use of interview schedules. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used as the analytical tools. The major finding was that technological change was neutral to most of the perceived negative consequences associated with change. Most of the problems were institutional and farm entrepreneur related. The study recommends that all the identified agencies, institutional and social problems relating to technological adoption and use in farms in the area must be tackled if the needed transformation of agriculture is to be achieved in the new century.