5 - Role Duality among School-age Children Participating in Farming in Some Villages in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

The paper examines rural children’s role duality as school pupils and farm par- ticipants. Multi-stage cluster random sampling was used to elicit data from 229 respondents aged between five and sixteen years. It was found that 44 per cent of the respondents were simultaneously schooling and farming, while the re- maining were only either in school or farming. Using eight common farm activi- ties, a coefficient of farm participation (cfp) was computed, while another eight agricultural innovations were used to compute agricultural innovation aware- ness index (awi) for each respondent. It was found that no significant difference existed in farm participation levels of respondents attending school and those that were not, while a significant difference in innovation awareness (awi) ex- isted in favour of respondents in school. Parental influence, peer group and school farms were also found to be significantly related to respondents’ partici- pation in agriculture. It is thus imperative to keep rural children in school even as they are engaged in farming activities.