Preference for Contract Farming in Sustainable Cassava Production among Farmers in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State – Nigeria

Abstract

Contract farming is a component of Agricultural transformation programme in Nigeria that is meant to disseminate technical skills, develop markets, guarantee access to inputs and organize the enterprise in a profitable way. The study investigated the preference of cassava farmers for contract farming in Oriire local government area of Oyo state. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 120 cassava farmers. Interview schedule was used to elicit information from respondents. Data were presented using descriptive statistics and an index was generated to categorise the farmers into those with high preference and low preference. The study hypothesis was tested using Chi-square statistics. The study revealed that more than half (53.2%) of the respondents were between the ages of 25 and 55 years, married (76.7%) and 16.7% went beyond secondary education. More than half (56.7%) of the respondents had high preference for contract farming. The respondents’ sex (?² = 45.66, p ? 0.05), level of education (? ² = 290.93, p ? 0.05) and Cassava Output (?² = 795.54, p ? 0.05) were significantly related to farmers’ preference for contract farming. The study showed that contract farming is a key factor in cassava transformation agenda and recommends that needs assessment of farmers by gender should be an integral part of the contract farming programme.

Keywords: Contract, Preference, Cassava, Farmers, Sustainable