Assessment of Awareness and Use of Farm Labour Laws Among Smallholder Farmers in Kogi State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed awareness and use of farm labour laws among smallholder farmers in Kogi State, Nigeria. A total of 182 smallholder farmers were randomly selected from the eastern and central senatorial districts of the State for data collection using a well - structured questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency distributions, percentages, mean score and standard deviation). The results revealed that child labour act (94.5%), prohibition of forced labour act (88.5%) among others, existed in the study area. But farmers were only aware of freedom of association act (M= 3.34 SD= 0.860), and child labour act (M= 3.11 SD= 0.860). While the constraining factors to their awareness and use of these laws were lack of access to agro-information (M= 3.20) and low extension contact (M= 3.10), among others. It is recommended that key players in farm industry should create the necessary awareness to enable farmers be aware of the existence and relevance of farm labour laws.