Socio-Economic Variables and Cocoa Production in Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The extent to which a farmer is efficient in his work can to a large extent be determined by the demographic variables. Therefore, this study evaluates the effects of farmers' socio-economic variables on cocoa production. The study was carried out in Cross Rivers state of Nigeria and the information was collected from the respondents with the aid of structured questionnaire and the information sought for include demographic variables, farm size as well as cocoa output. Descriptive statistics as well as regression analysis were used to analyze the data collected Result showed that youths of the age bracket 20-30 years has the highest proportion (36%) of the respondents while majority of the respondents (80%) were formally educated. However, educational level as well as farm size significantly affected the level of cocoa production in the study area (p<0.05 and p<0.01 respectively). Based on the findings, it was recommended that farmers should be encouraged to improve their level of education and that government should assist the farmers with soft loans so as to enable them expand their farms. It was also suggested that government should vigorously enforce land use decree in order to remove any obstacles to an increase in farm size.