Pattern of Labor Use and Productivity Among Agricultural Households in Nigeria

Abstract

Labor is an essential input in the production process. The pattern and intensity of its use has generated a lot of attention from the viewpoint of increasing productivity and employment. This study examined the pattern of labor use and labor productivity among agricultural households in Nigeria. The Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) wave 2 (2012/2013) was used. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, partial labor productivity measure, and two-stage least squares regression. The average age of male household head and female household head was 50.74±14.83 years and 59.65±12.69 years respectively. They are mostly married with an average household size of 7 and 4 members for male-headed and female-headed households respectively. The number of labor use during planting and harvesting activities revealed that female-headed household use more family labor than male-headed households while male-headed households use more hired labor during planting and harvesting activities than their female counterpart. Labor use is positively influenced by crop output, age of household head, household size, farm size, herbicide use, and credit access. The use of machinery, wage rate, and farm size negatively influenced labor use. Labor productivity was low, as majority was below the mean cut off point. Labor productivity was 0.45 and 0.41 in male-headed and female-headed households respectively. Factors that affect labor productivity were quantity of fertilizer used, seeds, and type of cropping system employed. Since labor productivity can be enhanced by the use of fertilizers and improved seeds, government should therefore make these inputs available to agricultural households. Also, since agricultural households’ productivity is a critical issue in the pursuit of sustainable agricultural production in Nigeria, efforts should be made to achieve optimum labor use, increase labor productivity and employment in agriculture.