Abstract
Studies showed that young farmers are not attracted to the production of food crops which is central to the reduction of poverty and food security among poverty ridden populace of Osun State. This study analyzes the economic factors responsible for productivity of selected food crops in Osun State. Factors influencing the level of production as well as problems militating against the production of the selected food crops in the study area were examined. Purposively, sampled data were collected from 100 farming households. Budgetary analysis and four functional forms of ordinary least square (OLS) were fitted to the data. Results showed that farm size allocated to crops imposes a positive and significant influence on return. The cost-benefit ratio to food crops are 0.65, 1.22 and 0.44 for cassava, maize and yam, respectively. Capital was the major constraints to food crop production in the study area for all the crops studied. It was concluded that yam production was more profitable but less cultivated compared to cassava. Farmers especially the young ones need to be financially encouraged to cultivate more of these crops and reduce the family size in order to sustain the productivity of these food crops. Key words: Food crops, food security, productivity.
Highlights
Over 90% of Nigeria’s agricultural output is produced by resource poor farmers who have, for centuries, sustained the national food supply by harnessing both natural and socio-economic factors of production (Adedipe et al, 2004)
Decline in agricultural production in Nigeria began with the advent of the petroleum boom in the early 1970s which brought about a distortion of the labor market
The household size depicts that most of the farmers had a mean household size of 7.8, 7.3 and 6, respectively. The importance of this finding is that the large nature of household size could affect their food intake and food security of the household. This corroborates with the findings of Owu (1995) that the larger the sizes of the household, the more the food required within the household, this will in turn have a negative relationship with returns as a substantial portion of farm output is used to feed the family members
Summary
Over 90% of Nigeria’s agricultural output is produced by resource poor farmers who have, for centuries, sustained the national food supply by harnessing both natural and socio-economic factors of production (Adedipe et al, 2004). These small farmers produce about 80% of the total food in the country (IFAD, 2009). The interaction of these factors has heightened the problem of food insecurity in the country (Babatunde and Oyatoye, 2005; DFID, 2009)
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