Assessment of Youth Involvement in Livestock Farming as a Career in Oluyole Local Government, Ibadan

Abstract

This study investigated the involvement of youths in livestock farming as a career in Oluyole Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria. We specifically determined the Socio-economic characteristics of the youth in the study area and ascertained their level of involvement in livestock farming as we analyzed the constraints to livestock farming as affecting the youth involvement in livestock farming. We also tested if there is significant relationship between selected Socio-economic characteristics and as well as constraints facing youth involvement in livestock farming as career in the study area. There are 10 wards in the local government out of which four were randomly selected with two villages selected from each of the four wards. Fifteen young farmers were randomly selected from each village to make a total of 120 respondents for the study. While 120 questionnaires were administered only 86 were retrieved. The data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics, chi-square and Pearson product moment correlation (PPMC). The result revealed that majority (58.1%) of the respondent were between 18-29 years, 65.1% were single with minimum of tertiary education (64%). A good number of them (27.9%) were managers with about 51.2% engaging in poultry farming. Chi-square analysis revealed that there is a significant (p<0.05) relationship between the sources of income and some selected socioeconomic characteristics with P-value of 0.011 and x2= 1.987. sources of income also significantly (p<0.05)affect the involvement of respondents in livestock farming in the study area. The study therefore concluded that inadequate capital and infrastructures constitute the major constraints to youths’ involvement in livestock farming as career. Government should therefore ensure availability of loan facilities as well as enable environment to encourage youths to venture more into livestock farming in the study area.