Perception of Youth Roles in Agricultural Innovation Management System among Arable Crop Farmers in Farming Communities of Osun State, Nigeria

This paper investigated the arable crop farmers’ perception of youth roles in agricultural innovation management system in farming communities of Osun State. Specifically, problems militating against the effective participation of youths in innovation management system among the arable crop farmers were empirically investigated. Quantitative data were collected through a multi-stage sampling procedure, using structured interview schedule to elicit information from one hundred and twenty six respondents. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The mean age of respondents was about 53 years, while majority (96.0%) were married with about 5 people as mean household size. Also, the identification of youth roles in agricultural innovation management system (r=0.721, P≤0.01) had a positive and significant relationship with the perception of youth roles in agricultural innovation management. Among others, the study concluded that arable farmers have access to few innovations while non-lucrativeness of farming accounts for the major problems militating against effective youth participation in arable farming. In order to forestall this occurrence and enhance food security in the country, agricultural development stakeholders should make agriculture attractive and develop programmes which will ensure adequate dissemination and adoption of innovation by the farmers using youths as target disseminator.