








































  American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 

KNOWLEDGE AND UTILIZATION OF FAMILY PLANNING METHODS AMONG FARMING 

HOUSEHOLDS IN ONDO EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ONDO STATE, NIGERIA 

Wole-Alo Felicia Itunnu, SUNMOLA, Olayinka Hassan and Adesida Ireti Emmanuel 

ABSTRACT 

The study examined knowledge and utilization of family planning methods among 

farming households in Ondo East L.G.A of Ondo State, Nigeria. A multi stage sampling 

technique was used to select one hundred (100) farming households while descriptive 

statistic was used to analyse the objectives and chi square was used to test the hypotheses. 

The majority (61%) of the respondents were females, 79% were below 41 years of age 

and the mean household size was 6.0. Although literacy level could be considered low as 

61% had primary education. The majority (73 %) of the respondents had the knowledge 

of family planning and also utilized modern family planning methods. Fifty eight percent 

(58%) obtained information from health care providers. The result of the hypotheses test 

indicated that there was significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics 

of the respondents and the knowledge of family planning methods by the respondents and 

also a significant relationship exist between the sources of information and the use of 

family planning. The study recommended that the health care facilities should be 

intensified in rural areas of the country to encourage utilization of family planning 

methods in rural areas of Nigeria.  

Keywords: knowledge, utilization, rural, household and family planning. 

________________________________________________________________________ 

Correspondence: 

Department of Agricultural Extension and Communication Technology, Federal University of 

Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. 

E-mail: fellymee@yahoo.com

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INTRODUCTION 

Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa with a population of over 140 million, with her average 

growth of 2.8% annually by The National Population Commission (NPC, 2007). Population explosion as 

a result of unregulated fertility is a major concern for the government as this poses a major economic and 

health challenge to the nation. It was in this view that Nigeria adopted its first population policy in 1988 

titled “National Policy on Population for Development, Unity, Progress and Self-Reliance” through the 

use of family planning (Babalola et. al., 2012). This strategy is now enhanced by the availability of 

effective modern contraceptive methods. Since the 1960s modern contraceptive method which includes 

condoms, injectable and its usages strongly advocated. Many world institutions such as World Health 

Organisation (WHO), World Bank (WB), and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has been 

advocating for family planning usage especially in third world countries of the world. According to Isaiah 

(2007) family planning is a way of thinking and living that is adopted voluntarily upon the basis of 

knowledge, attitude and responsible decisions by individuals and couples in order to promote the health 

and welfare of the family group, and this contributes effectively to the social development of a country. 

While most of the developed countries have managed to overcome issue of explosive population growth 

through the use and total adoption of modern family planning methods, the issue of population growth 

and consequent food shortage in developing countries is overwhelming (Nwachukwu and Obasi, 2008). 

Between the mid-1960s and 1990, the percentage of couples in the developing world using contraception 

went up from an average of 9% to 53% (Hamilton, 2005). Still there exist a wide gap between developed 

and developing countries as far as family planning methods are concerned.  According to WHO report in 

2013, the case of Kenya in which its fertility fell from 8.7 to 4.2  but by 1998 the fertility stall and this 

was  as a falling donor support, resources meant for family planning are diverted  as a result, the 

availability of use of contraceptives  at health services and outreach service deteriorated. This among 

other factors has contributed high level of unmet needs for contraception in many developing countries. 

In Nigeria today, the birth rates are higher than the world averages (Nwachukwu and Obasi, 2008). In 

rural areas in Nigeria, women fertility stood at 5.5 and 6.2 children per woman and 4.7 children per 

woman in urban Area National Health Demographic Survey (NHDS, 2013). Around the world more 

families are going into the use of  family planning as a mean of controlling population and increasing 

standard of living but in Nigeria, the usage of contraceptives remain very low and fertility, population 

growth and unmet needs remain high. Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) is still embarrassingly low in 

Nigeria, according to the report released by the International women’s health coalition (IHWC); the CPR 

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  American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 

among married women aged 15-49 years was 8% for modern methods and 12% for all methods.). 

However, majority of Nigeria’s population (about 70%) live in the rural communities with farming as 

their main occupation. These rural communities have very high fertility rate and the CPR is also 

considerably lower in rural areas with Contraceptives Prevalence Rate (CPR) of 8% as compared with 

18% in the urban areas in Nigeria (Ekong, 2003). However in Nigeria, Decision-making concerning 

fertility control is for many people a deeply personal and sensitive issue, often involving religious or 

philosophical convictions. Moreover the Knowledge of family planning methods is high in Nigeria; 85% 

of women and 95% of men age 15-49 know at least one method of family planning (NHDS, 2013). But 

this transcends to a very little progress been made in the area of family planning in Nigeria especially in 

the rural areas among farming households, where only 9% of women in rural areas use any method of 

contraceptives (NDHS, 2013). Currently, the use of family planning among married women in Nigeria 

stood at 15 % and of which 5 % uses traditional method of contraceptives which are most likely to come 

from the rural areas (NHDS, 2013). In the rural households, decision on family planning is  influenced by 

the husband attitudes towards it which in turns  determines  their wives attitudes towards the use of 

modern contraceptives, thus the perceived wishes of the husband may influences the wife’s attitude.     

The broad objective of the study was to examine knowledge and utilization of family planning methods 

among farming household, to ascertain the socio-economic characteristic of the respondents, to identify 

sources of information and types of modern family planning methods, to examine causes of low 

utilization of family planning methods and to assess the attitude of respondents towards the use of family 

planning in the study area in Ondo State of Nigeria.  

Hypotheses Testing 

H01: There is no significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the respondents 

and the knowledge of family planning methods by the respondents. 

H02: There is no significant relationship between the sources of information on family planning methods 

and the use of family planning. 

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METHODOLOGY 

The study was conducted in Ondo East local government area of Ondo State in which it has a population 

of 74,758 and a land size of 354 km². The study area, which has it  ocal  overnment Headquarters at 

( olorunduro) lies on longitude 7   0 ’ N and latitude,      ’ N ( oogle earth,  0  ). This means that the 

State lies entirely in the tropics and has two seasons, raining and dry season which range from (March – 

September and October – February) respectively and had helped the people of the area to involve in 

farming activities. The main source of livelihood in the area was through the farming of cocoa and other 

arable crops such as maize, cassava etc. Also, the area had a local health facility that offers family 

planning services to the people within the local government area.  A multi–stage sampling technique was 

used for this study. At the first stage, Ondo East Local Government Area was purposively selected from 

which 4 communities were randomly selected. Each community was divided into 5 wards out of which 4 

wards was selected. From each ward, 25 respondents were randomly selected making a total of 25 

respondents per ward and a total of 100 respondents for the whole study. To ascertain the content 

appropriateness of the instrument of data collection, face and content validity was carried out by experts 

in the field to ascertain the content appropriateness of the instrument while test- retest method was used to 

ascertain the reliability of the measuring instrument. This was done by administering the same set of 

interview schedule to a particular group of respondents at two times interval in two randomly selected 

communities which were close to the chosen communities for the study. Thereafter, the results of the two 

administrations were correlated and the correlation coefficient was 0.81 which was an indication that the 

instrument was reliable. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. 

RESULTS   

Socio-Economic Characteristic of Respondents 

Sex Distribution of Respondents: 

Findings from the study revealed that majority of the respondent were females (61%) while 39% were 

males. This could be attributed to the pattern of work of cocoa farmers in the study area as females were 

more involved in post-harvest process associated with cocoa farming. This is in line with the findings of 

Afolabi, 2008 that in some states in Nigeria rural women have virtually taken over the production and 

processing of crops. 

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 Table 1: Sex distribution of respondents 

Female 

Male 

Frequency 

63 

37 

Percent 

53.0 

26.0 

Total 100 100.0 

Source: Field survey, 2015. 

The table below revealed that majority (  %) of the respondent’s fell between the ages of 3 -35 which is 

considered to be the active child bearing age. While 10% fell between the ages of 41-45. This indicated 

that a larger percentage of the respondent are in the business of child bearing and a means of birth control 

would be highly needed. 

Table 2: Age distribution 

Source: Field survey, 2015. 

Religion of Respondents: 

However a high proportion of respondent in the study area (80%) were of Christian faith while 20% were 

Muslim faith. 

Frequency Percent 

< 30 

31-35 

12 

46 

36-40 21 

41-45 10 

46-50 7 

51-55 3 

>55 1 

Total 100 

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Table 3: Religion of Respondents. 

Source: Field survey, 2015. 

Marital Status of the Respondent:  

Table 4 shows that 86% of the respondents were married, eight percent divorced, two percent separated 

and four percent widowed. The high percentage of married respondents indicates that many of them will 

be in need of family planning methods as they are still in the business of child bearing. 

Table 4: Marital status 

Source: Field survey, 2015. 

Frequency Percent 

Christianity 80 80.0 

Islam 20 20.0 

Total 100 100.0 

Frequency Percent 

Divorce 8 8.0 

Married 86 86.0 

Separated 2 2.0 

Widow 4 4.0 

Total 100 100.0 

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Educational Level of Respondents: 

Table 5: Educational level of respondents 

Frequency Percent 

No primary 22 22.0 

Uncompleted primary 39 39.0 

Completed secondary 22 22.0 

Uncompleted secondary 15 15.0 

Completed tertiary 2 2.0 

Total 100 

Source: Field survey, 2015 

The table above revealed that majority of the respondents (39%) did not complete primary school 

education while 22 % did not attend any form of school, 22% completed secondary school, 15% 

uncompleted and only two percent completed any form of tertiary education. This indicates low level of 

literacy level among the respondents in the study area, the trend which can equally affect the utilization 

rate of family planning as adoption of family planning can be achieved through formal education. 

The study area is associated with cocoa farming and it is known for its high quality production of cocoa 

beans. However, 84% of the respondents take farming as their main occupation while 16% of the 

respondents engaged in other means of occupations. 

Table 6: Occupational Level of Respondents 

Frequency Percent 

Farming 84 84.0 

Trading 16 16.0 

Total 100 100.0 

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Source of Information on Modern Family Planning Methods: 

Results according to Table 7 showed that 56% of the respondents got there information from health care 

provider, two percent from radio, nine percent from wives, three percent from the husband, three percent 

from friends. This clearly revealed that the major source of information on family planning is from the 

health care provider who informs the farmers about family planning and what method is best for them. 

The extension agents (EA) as well as the block extension agents (BEA) in the study area should be 

educated and encouraged to inform their farmers about family planning especially during meeting with 

the various farmers group. 

Table 7: Sources of Information on Modern Family Planning Methods 

Source: Field survey, 2015 

Types of Family Planning Methods Available: 

From Table 8, the  family planning methods available to the respondents is the  modern method  in which 

63% of family planning users used this method  while 12% used the natural method and  no one used the 

local method. Modern methods which include intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD), injection, pills, 

implant and condom. The result showed that majority of the respondents 51% used injection, 6% used 

condom and 4% used IUCD. The modern method available in the study area was as a result of the 

presence of health care center within the study area and the high use of injectable among the respondent 

can be attributed to the fact that it is affordable and convenient for them to use.  

Sources of information Percentage % 

Wife 

Husband 

Radio 

Health care provider 

Extension agent 

Friends 

Children 

9.0 

3.0 

2.0 

56.0 

- 

3.0 

-

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Table 8: Identification of the types of family planning methods available to the respondents 

Local Natural Modern None 

Contraceptives types - - 

Withdrawal - 7 - 

Basal body temp - - - - 

Safe period - 4 - - 

Breast feeding - 1 - - 

Pills - - - - 

Condom - - 6 - 

IUCD - 4 - 

Injectable - - 51 - 

Diaphragms - - - - 

Surgical 

contraceptive 

- - - - 

       - (12%) (63%) (25%) 

Source: Field survey, 2015. 

Factors Influencing the Utilization of Family Planning Method among the Respondents: 

Result from table 9 shows that the factors that influence the use of family planning methods among the 

respondent were age interval as 46% of the population ranges between 31-35 years which is considered 

the active child bearing age. Also increase in household size also influences the   respondent use of family 

planning as most housed hold size between 4 and 6  (58%) tend to use any method of the family planning 

methods. However, the high proportion of females in the study (62%) is also considered to be a factor that 

influences the usage of family planning. This can be attributed to the fact that females inform and pass 

information faster among them about family planning as this have a direct effect on the utilization of 

family planning. 

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Table 9: Factors influencing the utilization of family planning methods among the respondents 

Source: Field survey, 2015. 

Knowledge of Family Planning Method among Respondents: 

The concept of family planning was well known to respondents in the study area as 73% responded ever 

heard of it while 27% said they had no knowledge about what family planning is. However out of the 

73% of the respondents that have knowledge of what family planning is about 61% were aware of the 

various methods of family planning available. 

Injection Condoms IUCD Natural None 

Total 

Age 

interval 

< 30 

31-35 

1 

11 

7 

25 

3 

2 

0 

4 

0 

3 

1 

1 

12 

46 

36-40 8 8 0 2 3 0 21 

41-45 2 4 3 0 1 0 10 

46-50 1 1 3 0 1 1 7 

51-55 1 0 2 0 0 0 3 

55 > 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 

Total 25 45 13 6 8 3 100 

Household 

size intervals 

1-3 1 5 1 0 0 0 7 

10-13 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 

4-6 13 28 8 3 5 1 58 

7-10 10 12 4 3 3 2 34 

Total 25 45 13 6 8 3 100 

sex of 

respondent 

female 11 40 0 6 3 1 61 

male 14 5 13 0 4 2 38 

Total 25 45 13 6 8 3 100 

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Table 10: Knowledge of Family Planning Method among the Respondent. 

Source: Field survey, 2015 

Hypotheses Testing  

H01: There is no significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and 

the knowledge of family planning methods by the respondents. 

From the table below, it was revealed that there is a low probability of the observed data under the null 

hypothesis of no relationship; Pearson Chi-Square statistic, 
x2

= 46.601, and p < 0.001. The null hypothesis 

is rejected, since p < 0.05 therefore is a significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics of 

the respondents and the knowledge of family planning methods by the respondents 

Table 11: Relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and the 

knowledge of family planning methods by the respondents 

Source: Field survey, 2015 

Frequency Percent 

Yes 73 73.0 

No 27 27.0 

Total 100.0 

Am aware 61 61.0 

Not aware 39 39.0 

Total 100 

Value Df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) 

Pearson Chi-Square 46.601 8 0.001 

Likelihood Ratio 46.085 8 0.001 

N of Valid Cases 100 

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H02: There is no significant relationship between the sources of information on family planning methods 

and the use of family planning. 

From the table below, the x
2
= 125.3, p value = 0.001. Therefore since p < 0.05 there is a significant 

relationship between the sources of information on family planning methods and the use of family 

planning. 

Table 12: Relationship between the sources of information on family planning methods and the use 

of family planning 

Source: Field survey, 2015 

DISCUSSION 

This study revealed that 63% of the respondent were female while 27% were males also, majority 46% of 

the respondent age falls between 31-35 years which shows that majority of the respondents in area were at 

active child bearing stage while 21% fell below 41 years of age. The prominent religion among the 

respondents was Christianity which took 80% while 20% were Muslims. However, the religion been 

practiced in the area does not have an effect on the utilization of family planning methods among the 

respondents. It was also revealed that 86% of the respondents were married, 8 % divorced, 2 % separated 

and 4% widowed. This shows that the utilization of family planning were much among married 

respondents. Although, literacy level among the respondents can be considered low, as 22% had no form 

of formal education while 39% did not complete primary education 20% uncompleted secondary 15% 

completed secondary education while only 4% attained tertiary education. The dominating occupation 

among the respondent was farming as 84% of the respondents were farmers while 16 % were involved in 

other occupations. 

It was also revealed that high proportion of the respondents (73%) heard about family planning and 61% 

were aware of various contraceptives methods involved in family planning. Also  about 56%  of the 

respondents claimed that information on family planning method were made known to them through the  

health care provider within the study area especially during natal and ante - natal care. While 2% claimed 

that their source of information was through radio, 9% from wives, 3% from the husband, and 3% from 

friends; which is not in line with the findings of (Bassey et. al; 2005) where the media was the 

Value Df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) 

Pearson Chi-Square 125.364a 8 0.001 

Likelihood Ratio 133.786 8 0.001 

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predominant source of family planning information. This could be due to the fact that one of the Health 

worker’s roles involved giving health information to their patients, which is similar to the finding of a 

study done in Pakistan by (Shah et. al; 2008) on the awareness and pattern of utilizing family planning 

among women attending urban health care center. This is a pointer to the importance of enhanced primary 

health care services in the rural communities. However, there is a significant relationship between the 

sources of information on family planning methods and the use of family planning. 

The current study also revealed that the method of family planning preferred by the respondent was the 

Modern method and the most used contraceptive under this method   is that of injectable as 51% of the 

respondent used this form of contraceptive. The prevalence of modern contraceptive methods usage 

among the respondents was 63% with affordability and source of information are the reason for choice of 

contraceptive methods. However, this prevalence rate is higher than the findings of other studies in rural 

areas in Nigeria and other developing countries. A study by (Ndiaye et al; 2003) in rural Senegal reported 

a prevalence rate as low as 1.5% for modern contraceptives. This may be due to the high literacy rate 

among the respondents as 70% of the respondents had one form of formal education or another. 

Knowledge of family planning is considered the first stage toward the utilization of a contraceptive 

method. The knowledge of respondents about family planning was high with 73% of the respondents 

have good knowledge of family planning and 61% were aware of different methods associated with 

family planning; this mirrors  Moronkola et. al, 2006 in their study carried out in South Western Nigeria. 

This pattern should be expected in light of much enlightenment that is on-going on the issue of family 

planning in the country. However, there is a significant relationship between the sources of information 

on family planning methods and the use of family planning. Also about 83% currently utilized one of two 

form of family planning within the study area as this revealed that knowledge has a relationship with 

utilization. However, there is a significant relationship between the knowledge and utilization of family 

planning. 

CONCLUSION 

Results demonstrated that good knowledge and utilization of family planning was observed among the 

respondents who were of child bearing age although, findings indicated that the knowledge and utilization 

of modern family planning method was most practiced by female respondents in the area. Also, it was 

indicated that greater percentage of the respondents got their information from health care rather than 

other means. However, there were few failures recorded during the administering of family planning 

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method in a village called Oboto but nevertheless, source of information on family planning methods 

within the study area rest in the hands of health care provider. This also point out to government to 

intensify the dissemination of information on family planning through other media source  and extension 

agents as these will further improve the knowledge and utilization of family planning methods in the rural 

areas of Nigeria  as this  gear up  the country towards attaining millennium development goals. 

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