Socio-Economic Analysis of Factors Associated with Child Labour use Among Cassava Farmers in Imo State

Abstract

This study focused on the socio-economic analysis of the incidence of child labour use among cassava farmers in Imo State of Nigeria. It is designed to empirically provide evidence-based knowledge to inform and influence policies in the direction of the use of child labour in cassava production. Multistage random sampling technique was adopted to select 115 respondents used for the study. Data was collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed using percentages, arithmetic mean and logit regression econometric procedure. The study found that majority of the respondents represented by 85% employed child labour in their cassava farm production. Those in age range of 15 – 17 were the least (8 %) employed as labourers. The study further found that the children spent an average of 5 hours a day working in cassava farms, with majority (62%) working between 4-6 hours/day while 15% worked for 1-3 hours/day. From the results, family size and farm size increased the probability of child labour use. The study concluded that the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers have significant effect on child labour use. It is recommended that large family-sized households should avoid the temptation of using their children as labourers in their farms

Key word: Cassava production, family size, farm size, child labour