Analysis of Youths Involvement in Arable Crop Production in Niger State, Nigeria

Youths’ involvement in arable crop production is on a decline in Nigeria. This study was conducted to investigate youths’ involvement in crop production in Chanchanga Local Government Area, Niger State, Nigeria. Random sampling technique was used in the selection of 120 respondents for the study. Data for the study were obtained using well-structured questionnaire and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logit regression model. Crop production was dominated by male (82%) while the average age of the respondents was 19 years. The average household size was five (5), majority (66.7%) were literate. Level of youths’ involvement were high for crop production (2.78), farm labour (2.68), agro processing (2.63) output marketing (2.60) and cash crop production. The factors that are likely to influence youths’ involvement in crop production were awareness of crop production, membership of cooperatives and income from farming. The major constraints were high cost of improved varieties (4.46), unfavorable weather (4.23), pests and predators (3.87), inadequate arable land (3.84). It is therefore recommended that youths join new or existing cooperatives to enhance their knowledge on arable crop production. There is the need for youths to be trained on climate smart adaptive measures in crop production