Suchergebnisse

Smallholders farmer's productivity has be declining due to many problems ranging from declining soil fertility to lack of basic inputs for their production. Hence, this study examined the determinants of Maize farmers' productivity among smallholder Farmers in Oyo state Nigeria. A three stage sampling procedure was used to collect data from rural maize farmers in Lagelu Local Government area of Oyo state. Descriptive statistics, productivity analysis and Ordinary Least Square Regression Model were used to isolate the factors that affect maize farmers' productivity in the study area. The socio-economic characteristics of the respondents showed that majority of them are male (68.3%), the age distribution showed that 56.1% are between ages 41-60 years, a very good productive age for maize production. Majority of the respondents are married (86.6%), while only 4.9% are youths, an obvious albatross to maize production in Nigeria, with less youth population in farming. The distribution of the Total factor productivity (TFP) indicated that, 72(50.7%) of the respondents having TFP 2 and TFP=1 respectively. The result of double log production function showed that the coefficients of labour, farm size (hectares) are statistically significant at 1% p>1, while that of farming experience is significant at 5% (p>5), with positives coefficients. The adjusted R-squared of 0.8572 explained the coefficient of variation of the maize farmers productivity model. It's recommended that farmers in the study area should be provided with tractors and other farm implements that can help increase their productivity, also increasing the farm size and land hectarage used for maize production should be prioritize. There is also the need to train the farmers adequately on new and improved farm practices; this will be like a boost to their experience in maize production.

Open Access Journal; Published online: 22 Apr 2022 ; The youth unemployment situation is an essential component of the current agricultural policy agenda of the Federal Government of Nigeria. Deep-rooted debates on finding a lasting solution to this problem using agriculture have been targeted as one of the panaceas. Using data from 207 systematically selected rice-producing households, this study employed the Propensity Score Matching method (PSM) and the Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment method (IPWRA) to examine the effect of intensive youth participation in agriculture on productivity and household revenue in Nigeria. We found that the key factors influencing the decisions of youth to participate in agriculture intensively include the number of years of farming experience, access to credit, membership in social groups, income, and land access. The PSM results indicate that rice productivity could increase by 1088.78 kg/ha if youth decide to intensively participate in agriculture. The IPWRA results show a positive and significant impact of intensive youth participation in agriculture on productivity and revenue. Therefore, our results suggest that efforts by the government and stakeholders towards encouraging flexible accessibility to credit (low-interest and easy repayment) and land without collateral to young people could enhance their participation in intensive agriculture and could subsequently boost productivity and household revenue.