Attitude of Youth to Agricultural Development Programmes In Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria

The problems associated with youth behaviours in the Niger Delta region necessitated the study. The specific objectives were to collate the current agricultural development intervention programmes; compare the attitude of youth leaders and non-leaders to agricultural development intervention programmes, and examine the factors militating against youth involvement in agriculture. Questionnaires were used to elicit information from respondents. Simple random sampling was used to select respondents. The sample was made up of 71 youths comprising 18 leaders and 53 non-leaders. Data were analysed by the use of mean and t-test. It was found that 5 agricultural development programmes currently existed in the study area. The non-youth leaders disagreed with the 5 positive attitude statements and agreed with 4 out of the 5 negative statements. The youth leaders disagreed with 5 positive attitude statements and agreed with the 5 negative attitude statements. There was no significant difference in the mean attitude scores between youth leaders and non-leaders (t=0.05; p>0.05). The factors militating against youth involvement in agriculture were lack of basic infrastructure ((x) over bar =2.62), lack of modern agricultural equipment ((x) over bar =3.46), lack of land/land tenure system ((x) over bar =3.34), lack of credit facilities ((x) over bar =2.99), and poor incentives/incomes((x) over bar =3.00). Youths should be motivated to take up agriculture through extension campaigns, and provision of inputs and land for large scale farming.