IMPACT OF YAM ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITIES ON LIVELIHOOD OF FARMERS IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA
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Date
2007
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Abstract
Globally, entrepreneurship skills development is regarded as one of the sustainable ways out
of poverty. Hence, agriculture experts have expressed the need for more empirical studies in
agricultural entrepreneurship as a necessity for effective agricultural extension policy process
that will translate to improved agricultural production enterprises and sustainable livelihood
of rural dwellers. Yam farming is widely practiced for livelihood in Ekiti State, therefore this
study examined the impact of yam entrepreneurial activities on livelihood of farmers in Ekiti
State, Nigeria. The objectives were to: (i) describe the socio-economic characteristics of yam
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farmers; (ii) examine the yam entrepreneurial activities of the farmers; (iii) assess the
perceived level of influence of yam entrepreneurial activities on access to livelihood assets of
farmers; (iv) investigate the knowledge level of yam entrepreneurial skills of farmers; (v)
examine the capacity building needs of farmers on yam entrepreneurial skills; and (vi)
identify the constraints to yam entrepreneurial activities of farmers.
A two-stage random sampling technique was used to select 640 respondents from the list of
contact yam farmers from Ekiti State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP). Ekiti
State ADP consists of 16 blocks. First stage involved a random selection of 2 farming
communities from each block. Second stage involved a random selection of 20 yam farmers
from selected communities making a total sample size of 640. Data were collected through
interview schedule. Only 580 of the instrument were retrieved and analysed with both
descriptive and inferential statistics including frequency counts and Multiple Regression
Analysis at 0.05 level of significance.
The findings of the study were that:
(i) majority of the respondents (72.8%) were male, 67.5% literates with mean of 30 years
of farming experience and average farm net income of N3,738,650 per season;
(ii) yam entrepreneurial activities of respondents were marketing (73.8%), transporting
(56.3%) and processing (47.8%);
(iii) about 98.8% of the respondents had positive attitude towards yam entrepreneurial
activities and it was perceived to have medium level of influence on access to
livelihood assets (grand mean= 0.44);
(iv) majority (62.6%) of the respondents had low knowledge level of yam entrepreneurial
skills;
(v) capacity building skills were needed in identifying market opportunities of yam
enterprises (𝑋̅=2.66), sourcing for machinery (𝑋̅=1.85), sourcing for fund (𝑋̅=1.75),
record keeping (𝑋̅=2.44), planning of tasks (𝑋̅=2.26), risk management (𝑋̅=1.22), and
communication and negotiation skills (𝑋̅=2.36);
(vi) constraints to yam entrepreneurial activities include destruction of yam farms by
cattle/herdsmen (𝑋̅=1.45), unstable pricing of yam (𝑋̅=1.14), and frequent illness
(𝑋̅=1.13); and
(vii) participation in yam entrepreneurial activities identified had positive significant (p <
0.05) impact to respondents’ livelihood.
The study concluded that yam entrepreneurial activities had played significant role in
accessing livelihood assets among farmers in Ekiti State. It is therefore recommended that
extension agents should train yam farmers in the needed areas of entrepreneurial skills such
as marketing, sourcing for machinery and risk management.