Authors : V.A. Okwoche, A.I. Age and F.O. Alegwu
Abstract: The study was to assess youth’s participation in agriculture and rural development in Benue state. A total of 200 youths were stratified and randomly interviewed. Frequency distribution, percentage, Likert-scale and Pearson correlation were used to analyze the data. The result showed that 85% of the youths were literate. In participation in agriculture and rural development, 96% of youths were in various schools ranked 1st and 72% were involved in religious and marketing activities ranked 2nd and 70% in agriculture production ranked 3rd among other activities. There was significant relation between the socio-economic characteristics and participation age (r = - 0.200) (p<0.05); extension education (r = 0.223) (p<0.05) and educational status (r = 0.379) (p<0.05). The study concludes that the extent of youth vitality, responsible conduct and their participation in community activities is positively correlated to the development of their area. It is therefore recommended that the government should deliberately formulate policy to integrate youths in agriculture and rural development programmes.
V.A. Okwoche, A.I. Age and F.O. Alegwu, 2012. An Assessment of Youths Participation in Agriculture and Rural Development, Benue State, Nigeria. Agricultural Journal, 7: 365-369.