Журнал сельскохозяйственных наук и пищевых исследований
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Patterns and Determinants of Farm and Non-Farm Employment among Youths in Nigeria

Adedotun Seyingbo*

This research work examined youth employment dynamics in Nigeria’s agricultural sector and its determinants using the Living Standards Measurement Study Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) from Nigeria conducted for 2010/2011 and 2015/2016. Specifically, it focuses on understanding the pattern of youth employment transitions between the rural farm and rural non-farm sector, giving special attention to the contributory role of access to land, credits, ICT and infrastructure. Overall, the findings study corroborates findings that youths are transited more from the farm sector to the non-farm sector in the period considered. More males are likely to leave than their female counterpart, while there is increased likelihood of youths in the North East and North West to leave the farm compared to the North central region. Key determinants of the observed transition pattern include land access, gender, and educational level, access to internet and mobile phones, infrastructure development proxied by access to electricity, road networks, farm size, household size, asset size and shocks. Youths who have more assets and more land are not likely to go to farm, justifying the severity of their disinterest in the farm sector. Also, education appears to play a major role in the effect of increased land, while access to credit does not play a significant role in the transition decision. Government will need to do more to fix structural issues such as infrastructure; development of the land rental markets as well as introduction of strategies to help youth mitigate shocks that hinder sustainability of their businesses will go a long way in stimulating the youth back to farm and addressing the country’s lingering unemployment problem.