THE DETERMINANTS OF YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN RICE PRODUCTION IN YAMALTU-DEBA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF GOMBE STATE, NIIGERIA

Abstract

The study analyzed the determinants of youth’s participation in rice production in Yamaltu-Deba Local Government Area of Gombe State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaire from 110 respondents through multi-stage random sampling techniques. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages and inferential statistics (regression analysis). The study showed that 34.5% of the respondents were in their active age 15– 19 years, most (97.3%) of the youths was male, 2.7% were female and 59.1% had primary education. The finding further revealed that occupational distribution of respondents indicated that majority (86.4%) of the farmers are civil servant and 83.6 % of them are married while 80.91% had less than <5 hectare of land for production of rice in the study area. The result indicated that 39.1%, 29.1% of the respondents had been in rice farming for between 5 – 9 years and 10 - 14 years, respectively. Regression analysis revealed an  R² = 0.77 which implies that the estimated variables included in the model explained 77% of variation in years of farming experience in rice production and F–value is significant at 1% level of probability. The major constraints agree by the respondents were inadequate incentives to youths farmers (90.9%), inadequate credit facilities (82.7%) and inadequate training and extension services (89.1%). The study recommended that provision of needed resources, provision of soft loan and the extension agents should be motivated to improve their work in the study area.