Approaches in Boosting Youths’ Engagement in Animal Agriculture for Employment and Sustainable Development in Oyo Metropolis, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

A high population of youth has a lot of advantages if properly managed and engaged in productive activities. This study focuses on the approaches in boosting youths’ involvement in animal agriculture for employment and sustainable development in Oyo metropolis. Two research questions and two hypotheses were used for the study and survey research design was adopted. A multistage random sampling technique was employed and 620 respondents comprised of 600 youths, 150 from each of the four local government areas and 20 extension agents 5 from each local government area were used for the study. Data was collected using a 25 items questionnaire known as Youths’ Involvement in Animal Agriculture Questionnaire (YIAAQ). Face validation of the instrument was done by three experts. Cronbach Alpha was used to determine the reliability and a coefficient of 0.88 was obtained. 620 copies of the instrument were distributed to the respondents and were retrieved. Mean, standard deviational and t-test statistical tools were employed. The results showed that all the 10 items were factors discouraging youths’ engagement in animal agricultural production while all 15 items were accepted as approaches to boost youths’ participation in animal agriculture. It was recommended that youths should be motivated, mentored and encouraged through provision of funding and financial support, animal fairs and exhibitions among others. Also, agricultural production should be tailored to social media to communicate innovations and opportunities in agriculture to youths.