Farm Labour Preferences among Small-scale Arable Crop Farmers in Akwa Ibom State, Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Human labour is critical in the survival and sustainability of the small-scale farm production system in developing countries. Following the imperfection in the rural labour market and the mounting rural poverty, labour demand among resource-poor small-scale farmers has shifted from its traditional surplus supply market pattern to a more competitive labour market. In Nigeria for instance, human labour is not readily available to farmers in most rural farming communities compared to the previous decades. Considering the fact that more than 60% of agricultural production is done by small-scale farmers in the country; there is an overwhelming need to identify ways of increasing labour utilization by the small-scale farmers in the southern region of Nigeria. Premised on these facts, the study primarily examined the prominent labour sources available to small-scale cassava-based farmers and identified determinants of their demand or adoption. The study was conducted in Akwa Ibom State in the southern region of Nigeria. A total of two hundred (200) cassava-based farmers were randomly sampled using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive and multinomial Logit models were employed to analyse the data and objectives of the study. The findings revealed hired labour, family labour and group labour as the major human labour sources for the small-scale farmers in the region. Also, farmers’ age, educational attainment, farm income, farming experience, non-farm income, farm size and social capital formation were identified as factors that increase the probability of adopting hired labour relative to the family labour in the region. Similarly, farmers’ age, education attainment, social capital formation, farmers’ sex and non-farm income were found to increase the probability of using group labour relative to the family labour source. However, household size impacted negatively on the probability of using both hired and group labour relative to family labour. It is recommended that farmers’ formal education, farm income and social capital formation should be enhanced to help them in making efficient choices on labour demand in the rural labour market.