Assessment of Population Dynamics and Farm Labour Use among Smallholder Farmers in Mbaise Area of Imo State, Nigeria

This study focused on the assessment of population dynamics and farm labour use in Mbaise of Imo State, Nigeria. A simple random sampling procedure was used in the selection of 240 smallholder farmers. Primary and secondary data were used for the study. Primary data were collected through the use of structured questionnaires, while the secondary data on births and deaths rates between 2005 and 2014 were obtained from the Local Government Area (LGAs) Headquarters of Mbaise area. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Results showed that the mean age was 42 years. The mean annual income was ₦418,000 as they cultivated a mean farmland of 1.5 hectares. The mean birth and death rates were 11 and 3 persons, respectively, in a month in the area. The highest rate of change in household population was in 2006, with an increase of 90.9%. Estimated multiple regression analysis revealed that the farmers’ socio-economic characteristics significantly influenced their demand for labour at a 1% level of probability. Critical variables determining labour demand were education, income, household size, farm size, and nature of farm operation, which had a positive influence. This explains that a unit increase in any of these variables resulted in a unit increase in the farmers demand for farm labour, and all these variables were positively significant except age, which was negative but still significant at 1% level of probability. In the same way, the study identified inadequate production capital and limited availability of farmland as the challenges facing farmer’s production. The study concludes that population changes are reshaping the agricultural labour dynamics in the area, and there is an urgent need for policies that support youth engagement in agriculture, labour-saving technologies, and cooperative labour systems to enhance productivity and sustainability. Therefore, the study recommends that the farmers should collectively pool productive resources together through strengthened cooperative societies, as these would enable them to project a collective demand and access farm productive input adequately.