Productivity of Arable Crop Farmers: Panacea to Youth Unemployment
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Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Biomed J Sci & Tech Res
Abstract
Nigerian agricultural sector is known to be dominated by aged and inactive famers
who are less productive and less receptive to new ideas. This has led to reduced food
productivity, which is a threat food security in the country. This necessitates the need to
involve youths in agriculture. This study examined and compared the productivity of the
youths and aged arable crop farmers in Nigeria, to empirically establish how productive
youths are in comparison to the aged in order to increase food production and reduce
unemployment. The data used were obtained from General household survey panel
(GHSP) and Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) 2015/2016 data collected by
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) [1]. A total of 2,134 old and young arable crop farmers
were selected. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test and stochastic
frontier analysis. The study revealed that majority of the farmers are old. Youth farmers
cultivates 1.249ha compared to 1.628ha cultivated by old farmers. The output of youth
farmers (10194.74kg/ha) is significantly higher than that of the aged arable crop farmers
(7897.816kg/ha). All the inputs used positively influence productivity, likewise, access
to credit has a direct effect on the technical efficiency of the arable crop farmers. It is
recommended that youths should be encouraged to venture into arable crop farming in
order to increase productivity and reduce youth unemployment. Income smoothening
policy option such as credit provision should also be executed in order to enhance the
efficiency of the youths in crop production.