EFFECTS OF AGE CATEGORIES ON FARMERS’ INVOLVEMENT IN ARABLE CROP FARMING ACTIVITIES IN SOUTH WEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the effects of age categories on farmers’ involvement in arable crop farming activities in South West, Nigeria. The study was carried out in Ekiti, Ogun and Osun states of Nigeria. The study aimed at providing data on the levels of involvement of farmers’ age categories in arable crop production. It also determined the levels of respondents’ access to production facilities, level of usage of mechanized labour, farmers’ socio - economic characteristics as well as the crop output among age categories. Multi - stage sampling procedure based on the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) organizational structure was used to proportionately select equal number of farmers across the age categories (≤ 30 yrs, 31 - 55 yrs and > 55 yrs) from each of the states, In the first stage, 100% of ADP agricultural zones were selected. This gave 3, 3 and 4 zones from Ekiti, Ogun and Osun states, respectively. At the second stage, 100% of the blocks in each state were selected given 16, 20 and 29 blocks in Ekiti, Ogun and Osun states, respectively. In the third stage, 20% proportional cells from the blocks in the three states were purposively chosen. This gave 26, 25 and 46 cells selected from 128, 126, and 232 Cells in Ekiti, Ogun and Osun state, respectively. At the fourth stage, 30 respondents were purposively selected for each of the age categories from each of the selected states, considering their age categories (≤ 30 years, 31 - 55 years and > 55 years), and type of crop grown (Cassava and Maize). This gave, 90 respondents selected from each of the three states and a total of 270 respondents. Data collection was done using structured interview schedule. Frequencies, percentages and bar charts were used to describe the data while Chi - square, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC), regression analysis, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were employed to draw inferences from the data. Majority (73.3%) of the respondents in the 30 years and below age category was married and had a mean age of 27.5 ± 2.48 years. About 84.5% of those in the 31 - 55 years group were married with a mean age of 40.4 ± 5.52 years, while those above 55 years had majority (84.5%) married with mean age of 51.3 ± 5.61 years. Mean household size for 30 years and below was approximately 4.00 ± 2.00 persons while the 31 - 55 years age category had a mean of 6.00 ± 3.00 persons and those above 55 years age category had a mean household size of 7.00 ± 3.00 persons. Majority (88.9%) of farmers in the 30 years and below had formal education while 90.0% of those in the 31 - 55 years categories had formal education and 84.4% of the respondents older than 55 years also had formal education. Respondents in the 30 years and below were better involved in land clearing, ridging, planting and weeding operations with the highest mean values of 1.34 ± 1.81, 0.84 ± 1.47, 1.49 ± 1.90 and 1.73 ±1.90, respectively. Respondents in the 31 - 55 years age group were better involved in the application of herbicide, pesticide, fertilizer, harvesting and processing with the following mean values of involvement 1.51 ± 1.91, 2.15 ± 1.14, 2.27 ± 1.18, 2.00 ± 2.29 and 2.99 ± 2.29, respectively. Those in the 55 years and above category engaged the highest level of hired labour (94.4%). Farmers in the 31 - 55 years age category produced the highest crop output of maize (156,618.0 kg) and 80,934.0 kg of cassava tuber. Chi - square analysis showed a significant association between level of involvement in arable crop production and age (χ2 = 38.55, p = 0.00), marital status (χ2 = 29.08, p = 0.00), Formal education (χ2 = 94.69, p = 0.00) and land acquisition (χ2 = 19.04 p = 0.40) of the respondents. Correlation analysis showed that age (r = -.162**, p = 0.08), farm size (r = .179**, p = .006) and, level of education (r = -.186** p = 0.01) were significantly related with level of involvement in arable crop production. Though Analysis of Variance revealed a significant difference in the level of involvement in crop farming activities among the different age categories that of the ≤ 30 years and 31 - 55 years were not significantly different. The > 55 years category had the lowest level of involvement. This study concluded that age categories of farmers had significant effect on farmers level of involvement in arable crop production. Policy makers should thus focus on strategies to motivate and encourage the youth and middle aged in arable crop production.