Analysis Of Labour Use Among Rural Maize Farmers in Ogbomoso South Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzed labour use among rural maize farmers in Ogbomoso South Local Government Area of Oyo state, Nigeria. A total number of (120) respondent were selected for the study using multi-stage sampling technique. Well-structured interview schedule was used for data collection from the respondents with the aid of multistage techniques. Statistics such as frequency table, percentage and mean was used to analyze the research work while Chi-square was used as inferential tool used to analyze the data of the study. The results showed that majority (75.8%) of the respondents were male. Majority (81.7%) were married with the mean age of 46 years. The mean household size was 6. The mean year spent in school was 6 years, majority (75.8%) of the respondents belong to social association. Hired labour had the highest Weighted Mean Score (WMS) of 1.84 and personal labour (WMS=1.78) were themajor labour utilized while Low labour cost had the highest weighted mean score (WMS) of 1.73 and ranked 1 st, as the major effect of labour used. Seasonal migration of labour had the highest weighted mean score (WMS) of 1.76 and high cost of labour (WMS=1.75) were the major constraints to the usage of labour. Chi-square analysis shows a significant relationship between some selected socioeconomic characteristics such as sex (x=32.033, p=0.000), marital status (x=209.533, p=0.000), religion (x=52.650, p=0.000), primary occupation (x=46.333, p=0.000) and level of income (x=28.800, p=0.000) and labour usage