COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOUR PATTERNS’ IMPACT ON FOOD CROP PRODUCTION IN THE BENIN REGION: A PANACEA FOR FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA
Keywords:
Farm Labour Patterns, Impact, Food Crops Production, Food Security, Nigeria.Abstract
This paper carried out comparative analysis of agricultural labour patterns impact on food crops production in the Benin region. Data were sort through questionnaire instrument in the sampled area. Systematic random sampling technique was used in selecting household farmers who were directly involved in farming while purposive sampling was used in selecting two rural areas each from the seven local government areas that make up the Benin region. A total of 761copies of questionnaire were used in the study. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and frequency counts, bar chart, tables and percentage. The chi-square was used to examine the significant differences among the crop types in the study area. Time series analysis was used to examine the trend of the overall agricultural productions in five planting seasons (2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015) using the three major agricultural labour supply patterns (family labour, hired labour and both f/h labour). Findings revealed that majority of the farmers (84%) used hired labour in virtually all the farming activities ranging from ploughing, planting, weeding, harvesting and transporting. The study also showed the R-squared values of the three labour patterns: 0.959 (hired labour), 0.638 (both f/h labour) and 0.882 (family labour) respectively, indicating that the trend line of hired labour fit the data more closely and provided a better fit than the other two patterns of labour supply. The steady upward trend of “hired labour” was an indication that agricultural production with hired labour rose consistently in the period as against the two other patterns and was likely to maintain an upward trend in the long run. Thus, in year 2016 and beyond, employment of hired labour is likely to achieve an agricultural production of more than 10000 units and higher as the year extends in the Benin region. It is recommended that farmers should be encourage to hire more wage labour in all their farming activities in order to boost agricultural production increase as a measure for sustainable food security in Nigeria.
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