DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS AND EXTENSION SERVICES

In Nigeria, agricultural practices remain largely unattractive to people, especially
the youths for various reasons which include; low returns on time and input
investments, limited access to land, low investments in infrastructure necessary for
efficient value chain. Hence, the need to boost agricultural productivity has
become a major topic of discourse among development institutions. This study
accessed the involvement of youths in soilless farming in Ogun State, Nigeria. The
specific objectives are to examine the socioeconomic characteristics of youths
involved in soilless farming, to examine the factors that influence youths’
involvement in soilless farming, to ascertain the youths’ attitude towards soilless
agriculture technology, to examine the benefits of soilless farming to the youths
involved, investigate the challenges hindering the full engagement of youths in
soilless farming. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to select a total of 102 respondents for
the study and primary data was collected with the use of questionnaire and results
were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). The mean age of respondents was the ages of the respondents showed that the
majority of the respondents were between the ages of 23 – 27 years, 59% were
males, 41% were females. 84% were single, while 15% were married. Also, 72% had tertiary education. 62% of the respondents earned #50,000 naira or
less per month, while 27% of the respondents earned between #50,000 to
#100,000 naira. Furthermore, 93% of the respondents noted that they would
recommend soilless farming to other young people. Finance 50% and
environmental factors 30.4% were major factors hindering respondents full
engagement. In addition, the result revealed that respondents’ attitudes towards soilless farming
have a positive relationship towards the socioeconomic characteristics (age
XI
(r=0.882), sex (r=0.820), marital status (r=0.560), education (r=0.790), course
studied (r=0.849), farm name (r=0.783), position at work (r=0.869), duration of
involvement (r=0.854) and income (r=0.849)). In conclusion, youth involvement in soilless agriculture is low and can be
improved upon through trainings, publicity and government investment in public
orientation and the benefits of practicing soilless farming.

The study examined the effectiveness of mass media in disseminating information to fish farmers in Sapele Local Government Area, Delta State, Nigeria. describe the socio-economic characteristic of fish farmers in the study area; examine the different mass media and their accessibility in the study area; identify the major source of agricultural information to fish farmers in the study area; analyze the effectiveness of mass media in the dissemination of agricultural information in the study   and identify the constraints the respondents face sourcing for agricultural information in the study area.
A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to collect data from 100 respondents with the aid of a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as frequency count and means were used to describe the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents while multiple regression and chi-square was used to determine the hypotheses of the study.
Results show that majority (60% ) of the respondents involved in fish farming are males  (67.5%) of the respondents were aged between 35-50 years with (55%) being married and 88.7% having formal education. Results also showed that majority of fish farmers have access to television (60%), telephone/internet (65%), Newspaper/Bulletin (55%) and Radio (55%). Findings also reveal that the major sources of information was Radio (90%), internet (80%), Facebook (92%), WhatsApp (74%), neighbors (100%), ministry of agriculture (98%), extension agent (80%), newspaper (100%) etc. and the problem facing fish farmers in sourcing for information in Sapele LGA were illiteracy, low income level, lack of credit facilities inadequate information and erratic power supply. The study recommended that more programs on Agricultural development and farming techniques should be aired on radio and television, more of such information should also be available on newspapers and bulletins. More agricultural pages should be created on Facebook and finally, WhatsApp group page should also be created for fish farmer’s in Sapele LGA area in Delta state where they can easily get information.