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 57ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 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 58ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com 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. 59ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 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. 60ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 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 61ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 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 62ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 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 63ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 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 - 64ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 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. 65ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 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 66ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 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 67ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 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 68ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 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 69ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology 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. REFERENCES Afolabi, M.M. (2008). Women as Pillars of National Economy in Nigeria: A Study of Economic Activities of Rural Women in Six Local Government Areas of Ondo State. IAFFE Summer Conference, International Association for Feminist Economics,Torino, Italy. Babalola, D., Babalola, Y., and Oladimeji, A. (2012). Accessing the use of family planning information among farming household in Nigeria: Evidence from Ogun State. Asian Journal of Rural Development, 2(2), 40-46. Bassey, E., Abassattai, A., Asuquo, E., Udoma, E., and Oyo-ita, A. (2005). Awareness, attitude and practice of contraception among secondary school girls in Calabar. 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Awareness and pattern of utilizing family planning services among women attending Urban Health Care Centre Azizabad Sukkur. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 24(4), 550-555. World Health Organization, (2013). New directions in maternal health by Mario Merialdi, and Jennifer Harris Requejo, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, pp. 75-80. 71ISSN: 2158-8104 (Online), 2164-0920 (Print), 2019, Volume 3 Issue 1 http://journals.e-palli.com