ANALYSIS OF FACTORS INFLUENCING ON-FARM BIODIVERSITY AMONG MAIZE FARMERS IN ONDO STATE,NIGERIA

The farm household is the fundamental unit of management where decisions and actions affecting crop biodiversity are made. The household functions as a consumer, consuming commodities made on the farm by its members as well as goods acquired with money earned from wage labor or the farm. The household generates agricultural commodities that are either consumed or sold on the market by combining its own resources of labor, land, and other capital with inputs that are acquired. (Van dusen, 2000). According to Benin et al (2004), farmers’ decisions about which cereal crops and varieties to grow and how extensively can be understood in the context of the theory of the household farm. In this theory, the household farm maximizes utility over a set of consumption items generated by the set of crops and varieties it grows (Cf), a set of purchased consumption goods (Cnf), and leisure (l). The utility a household derives from various consumption combinations and levels depends on the preferences of its members. Preferences are in turn shaped by the characteristics of the household, such as the age or education of its members, and wealth. Choices among goods are constrained by the full income of the household, total time (T) allocated to farm production (H) and leisure (l), and a fixed production technology represented by (F). The production technology combines purchased inputs (X) and labor (L) with the physical characteristics of the farm (ΩF), which are fixed in a single decision
making period. (Joshi, 2006).