Pages: (1-8 )
Abstract
Rural youths exist in very harsh and unstable economic circumstances that leave them with little room to think positively and constructively. This study therefore explores the rural youth’s involvement in agricultural production in Ogun state. Multistage sampling techniques were used to select 120 rural youths in the study area of Ogun State. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire. Data collected were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study revealed that the rural youth were within the mean age of 28 years with majority (96.7%) had one form of education ranging from primary to tertiary education. Most (79.2%) of the rural youth are married. Also, the study found out rural youth involvement in agriculture is very high in arable crop production than livestock production. More than half (52.7% and 55.3%), of the respondents indicated that environmental factors such as crop failure and diseases and pest infestation are constraints facing rural youth involvement in agriculture, while most (68.3%) of the rural youth were faced with insufficient skill in the field of agriculture practice. Pearson Product Moment Correlation result showed a significant relationship between the age (r = 6.215, p = 0.002), household size (r = 16.12, p = 0.041) and their attitude towards agricultural practices. The study therefore concluded that rural youth have a lot of opportunity in agriculture, but they need to be enlightened and motivated on how to exploit these opportunities. The study thus recommended that effort should be made by initiating youth trade fairs in order to identify and encourage rural youth with innovative ideas which can generate self-employment and enhance human and nation development.
Keywords: rural youth, attitude, involvement, agriculture, development,