DETERMINANTS OF RURAL YOUTHS PARTICIPATION IN CASSAVA PRODUCTION IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study established the determinants of rural youths’ participation in cassava production in Ondo State, Nigeria. To achieve this objective, through a multi stage sampling technique, data were collected using a well- structured interview schedule administered to 144 cassava farmers. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency, percentages, mean statistics, pie charts, ranking and Chi Square. The results show that there were more male (87.5%) youth cassava farmers in the study area with most of them in the age bracket of 20 to 40years. Larger percentages (70.1%) of the respondents were married. The mean for their household size, farm size and farming experience were 4.23, 2.95 hectares and 8.83 years respectively. Also, 84.7% of the respondents had one form of education or the other, while 15.3% of the respondents had no formal education. While 80.5% of the respondents use family land, rented land and government land for cassava production, only 19.5% makes use of their personal land. Majority (86.8%) of the youths relied on family members, hired labour, friends and association for labour and 77.8% relied on themselves for finance. For the respondents level of participation in cassava production, their participation in different cassava production processes were ranked with a grand mean of 2.57, planting of cassava (x̅ =3.08), marketing and sale of cassava (x̅ =2.97), harvesting of cassava (x̅ =2.90), heaping (x̅ =2.86), bush clearing (x̅ =2.77), weeding (x̅ =2.68), herbicide application (x̅= 2.45), transportation to market (x̅ =2.40), pesticide application (x̅ =1.90) and application of fertilizer (x̅ =1.78), respectively. With regard to the determinant factors of the respondents participation in cassava production, with the overall mean value of 1.56, it showed that cassava guaranteed food security ( x̅ =2.4), high demand for cassava (x̅ =2.2), creation of self- employment (x̅ =2.2), increase in farmers income (x̅ =2.25), and cassava as a major source of raw materials (x̅=2.06) ranked 1 st to 5 th . Furthermore, lucrativeness (x̅ =2.0), livelihood diversification (x=1.95), ease of cultivation (x̅ =1.81), guaranteed market (x̅ =1.72), drought resistant (x̅ =1.60) ranked 6 th to 10th as the factors that influence their participation in cassava production, respectively while inadequate fund for crop expansion (x̅ =2.61), difficulty in obtaining credit facilities (x̅ =2.56), none agricultural insurance coverage ((x̅ = 2.50), fluctuating markets ((x̅ =2.45), high interest rate on credit facility (x̅ =2.45), damage by livestock (x̅ =2.45), poor pricing (x̅ =2.18), labour intensiveness (x̅ =2.15), glut in the market (x̅ =2.06), pest and diseases infestation (x̅ =1.99) are ranked as the first ten constraints by the respondents with an overall mean of 1.84. It was therefore concluded that the above factors are major determinants of youths’ participation in cassava production in the study area. The study recommended that Credit facilities should not be made difficult for rural youth to obtain, agricultural insurance should be encouraged for all cassava farmers and that government should pay attention to land ownership and land tenure system so that rural youths would be able to have access to large expanse of government land so that mechanization can be encouraged.