Relationship between Youth Associations and Youth Empowerment in Agricultural Activities in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between youth associations and youth empowerment in agricultural activities in Ogun State, Nigeria. The study used primary data obtained through structured questionnaire administered to 240 respondents. A multistage random sampling procedure was used to select 20 farm youths in each of the twelve rural communities where youths are actively involved in registered agricultural associations in Odogbolu LGA and Ijebu North LGA.  Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Results show that majority (88.3%) are male, single (81.37%), under the age of 30 years (80.8%) and educated (98.4%).The youths acquired various agricultural skills such as poultry production, crop production and fish production as a result of participating in the associations' agricultural activities and majority (96.7%) of them transferred the acquired skill to their personal farms. The study further revealed that youth made an average income of N103,750 per annum for their engagement in personal farm. The result of the multiple regression analysis shows that gender, educational level, length of residence in a community, income and contact with extension agents were the relevant and significant factors that determined youth participation in agricultural activities of the youth associations. The study recommends that credit facilities should be provided by the government and NGO to the young farmers, intensive campaign to encourage young school leavers and female youths into the agricultural training programme.