Extent of Youths’ Involvement in Agricultural Programmes and Projects in South Eastern Nigeria

Subject Areas : Rural Youth Education

Hyacinth  Nwalieji ¹ (Department of Agricultural Economics & Extension, Faculty of Agriculture, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (Former Anambra State University), Igbariam Campus, Anambra State, Nigeria)
Margaret  Okeke ² (Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (former Anambra State University), Igbariam Campus, P.M.B. 6059, Awka, Nigeria)
Christopher  Uzuegbunam ³ (Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (former Anambra State University), Igbariam Campus, P.M.B. 6059, Awka, Nigeria)
Joseph  Udemezue ⁴ (National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, P.M.B. 7006, Abia State, Nigeria)

Received: 2017-11-11 Accepted : 2018-04-27 Published : 2018-06-01

Keywords: agriculture, Youth involvement, programmes,

Abstract :

The study determined extent of youths’ involvement in agricultural programmes and projects in the south eastern Nigeria. The population of the study comprised all the youths, male and female between the ages of 18 to 40 years that were involved in one or more programmes/projects in south eastern Nigeria. A total sample of 180 respondents was selected using a multistage sampling procedure. Questionnaire was used for data collection while percentage and mean score were used to analyze the data. The result of the study showed that the mean household size was 5 persons and majority (95.6%) of the youths were literate and engaged in different occupations. Majority (76.2%) of the youths were aware of most of the agricultural programmes and projects initiated, but were fully involved in few of them. The key serious problems identified among others that militate against youths involvement included poor access to land and other farm inputs (M = 2.86), lack of involvement at planning and introduction stages (M = 2.88), politics (M = 2.90) and inadequate information about the existence of the programmes/projects (M = 2.92). The initiative to improve the opportunities for young people to take part in decent agricultural work to provide larger benefits was recommended.

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