Abstract

Youth are one of the most important sectors in any society. Apart from being a major source of manpower for socioeconomic development of the society, youth serve as channels for the transmission of culture and the perpetration of a people?s recognizable identity. This study examined the challenges of youth participation in agricultural activities in Ondo state, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 128 youths. Primary data were collected from the youths through the use of interview schedule. Data were analysed using descriptive (frequency, chart, percentage, mean statistic). The results revealed that, youth participated more in crop production (65.6%) and vegetable farming (50.8%). Majority (98.0%) of the youth had favourable attitude towards agriculture. The major challenges youth faced while participating in agricultural activities were ease of starting small scale agriculture as a career (x? = 2.26) and income derived from agriculture (x? =2.25). The study recommended that,to improve youth participation in agricultural activities, government and non-governmental organisations should vigorously pursue sensitization and reorientation of youth on market information available for agricultural products and also the prospects abound in agriculture.

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