This study determined the adoption level of 11 soil management practices and the factors which affected them in Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State of Nigeria. A sample of 160 farmers was obtained by stratified random sampling from 8 villages in the Ikorodu area. Data were collected by use of questionnaire and field observations.
It was found that farmers' knowledge of the innovations made maximum contribution towards adoption with positive regression coefficient. Contact with extension agents made negative significant contribution to adoption of the 11 soil management techniques listed in Table 4. The reason for this surprising result is that village extension workers concentrated on other aspects of crop production and neglected detailed information dissemination on soil fertility management. Other findings are: (1) the combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers in the same soil recorded lowest adoption score of 0.51; (2) there was a positive relationship between cosmopoliteness and farmers' knowledge of the practices; (3) a positive significant relationship between farmers' leadership status and knowledge of the practices was found.
The average adoption score was 3.1 (31%) . The average age of farmers was 38 years; they had poor education level and average farm size was 2.4 ha. The study concluded that adoption level of the innovations and the condition of soil fertility in Ikorodu villages depend on agricultural extension services and the extent to which farmers' characteristics permit the acceptance of new soil management techniques. It was suggested that extension workers should be trained on soil management innovations regularly; and community awareness programme on the innovations should be promoted through the use of television and radio broadcasts to the rural farmers.