Youths’ perception on cashew production towards poverty reduction.

Abstract

The study assessed youth perception on cashew production towards reducing poverty in Osun State, Nigeria. The specific objectives are; to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the youths involved in cashew production, identify the factors that encourage the involvement of youths in cashew production and examine the perception of youth about cashew production in Osun State. A multistage sampling procedure was adopted to select 96 respondents and structural interview scheduled was used to collect data from the selected respondents. The data collected were subjected to descriptive analysis such as frequency counts, percentage, mean, standard deviation and inferential analysis such as chi-square analysis to test for the hypothesis. Results show that the majority (83.3%) of the youths  that involved in cashew production are male, with mean age of 30.94 ± 2.4 years, an average farm size of 2.19 ± 0.45 hectares and average annual income of ₦164,844 00K ± ₦41,965.40K ($457.9 ± $116.6). About 53.1 percent of the respondents practice cashew farming mainly to earn a living. Findings from the study show those factors such as unemployment in non-agricultural sectors; favourable environment for cashew production including marketing availability and provide employment opportunity among others are motivational factors that enhances their involvement. Furthermore, source of information (χ²=32.331, p ≤0.01)), sex (χ²=7.513, p ≤0.05), marital status (χ²= 10.603, p ≤0.05) and reason for practicing cashew farming (χ²=29.766, p ≤0.05) had a positive and significant association with perception of youths towards cashew production. The study concluded that youths had a positive perception of cashew production and recommended among others that trainings in cashew value chain activities should be organized by agricultural development stakeholders to promote youth involvement in cashew value chain activities.