ASSESSMENT OF THE UTILIZATION OF LABOUR AMONG YAM FARMERS IN OGOJA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, CROSS RIVER STATE.

Abstract

The study assessed the utilization of labour among yam farmers in Ogoja Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 126 respondents, and data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that the majority of the farmers (66.7%) were male, with 40.5% aged above 50 years. Most respondents (64.3%) were married, while 46.3% had attained secondary education. The farmers typically had household sizes of more than six persons and operated small farm holdings of about 1–2 plots. The findings showed that family labour was the most utilized form of labour, with a mean score (x̄ = 3.39). Family labour was predominantly used for farming operations such as planting (69.9%) and fertilizer application (69.0%), whereas hired labour was mainly engaged for more strenuous tasks like staking and mound making. The study further identified rural–urban migration as the most significant factor influencing labour utilization (x̄ = 3.58). Inferential analysis using chi-square statistics indicated a statistically significant relationship between the type of labour used and yam farming operations, as the calculated value (tcal = 206.4) was greater than the p-value (1.55 × 10⁻³⁷) at the 0.05 level of significance. The study concludes that labour utilization in yam production is largely dependent on the nature of farming operations and is influenced by socio-economic factors such as migration. It is therefore recommended that government interventions should focus on supplementing manual labour with mechanized options, particularly for labour-intensive operations like mound making, which require specialized skills and significant physical effort.