CONTRIBUTION OF AGRICULTURE TO EMPLOYMENT GENERATION IN ABEOKUTA SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OGUN STATE

Ibrahim Adamu, Faruk Abubakar, Abolaji Jamiu Atobatele

Abstract


Agriculture has proved to be one of the major sectors that  has contributed to the growth and  employment of labour of m\any countries in the world. In  Nigeria Agriculture played  an important  role in pre-independence  and shortly post – independence  in terms of employment generation and  contribution to Gross Domestic Product but the situation changed after the  discovery of crude  oil in 1970 which made a lot of people to leave agriculture  and seek for employment in oil and gas sectors. The aftermath of this mobility from agriculture to oil and gas exacerbated the unemployment situation and balance of payment such that it became unfavorable as a result of the fact that Nigeria became an importer of the agricultural products which she has comparative cost advantages on. However several policies and schemes have been  introduced by the successive government to salvage the  situation but it  proved abortive. The  study aimed at examining the contribution of agriculture to employment generation in Abeokuta South and Odeda Local Government Areas between 2010-2015. Data were collected  from the primary  sources with the aid of questionnaires and interview. The secondary  data were gathered from the records of the local governments regarding the amount spent on agriculture. Analysis of the data was conducted using parametric tool while the hypotheses were tested with the aid of Pearson correlation. The outcome of the test revealed that there is a significant relationship among the Government effort, agricultural development, the types of Agricultural practice adopted and employment. The result showed that there is 0.161 relationship among the variables which depicts that agriculture only had 16% influence on employment showing a very weak relationship. It is therefore recommended that government should show sincerity in their agricultural programmes. The Ministry of Agriculture and other agricultural departments should be made to measure up to expectation. The Government must encourage commercial agricultural practices and sponsor it maximally with the assistance of the World Bank. That can generate multiples of employment opportunities in the state as well as in the local government areas.

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