IITA developed several new varieties during 1976-1985 for the benefit of cassava farmers. The study had four specific objectives which described the socio-economic characteristics of the cassava farmers, identify the perception of cassava farmers on the IITA improved varieties, ascertain the cost and profitability of cassava production and the constraints faced by the farmers. A multi stage and purposive sampling method was used in the selection of 100 respondents, 50 adopters and 50 non-adopters of IITA intervention in the study area. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents and these data were analyzed using gross margin, likert and descriptive analysis (frequency, percentage and mean). The result showed that majority of cassava farmers in the study area were male and majority of them were married. The mean farm size was 1.8ha which implied that production was in a small scale in the study area. The result also revealed the net return for adopters was N230,800 and N146,000 for non-adopters, which denoted that cassava production was more profitable to the adopters of the improved cassava varieties. The result further revealed that the inadequate information on availability of planting materials was the main constraints faced by the cassava farmers. This study concluded that the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) improved cassava varieties increased the profitability of cassava production. Therefore, it is recommended that extension agents should train and encourag farmers to use IITA varieties to increase their profitability in the study area.
Analysis of the rural youth engagement of IFAD value chain development program as a panacea (way-out) to unemployment in Southeast, Nigeria was the main aim of the study. The socioeconomic characteristics, value chain interventions, readiness of the youth to implement the skills acquired and factors hampering the youths' readiness to implement the skills acquired were looked into. The data was analyzed using statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, principal factor analysis and inferential statistics of paired sample t-test in order to arrive to a logical conclusion. The factors hampering the youth readiness to implement the skills were rotated into awareness factors such as: Sex (-0.747), inadequate market arrangement (0.687) and inadequate fund (0.896) and institutional factors such as; age (-0.426), level of education (-0.797), high cost of labor (0.882) and absence of local fabricators (0.891). Furthermore, Sex, Age, Year of formal learning, Household size and mean monthly income were the socioeconomic variable that influenced the youth's readiness to implement the skills acquired and the t-value of 10.5386** indicated that there was a significant difference in the mean income of the youths before and after their engagement.
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