ECONOMIC BENEFIT OF OKRA LEAF PRODUCTION IN IBARAPA CENRAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE, NIGERIA
2nd Biennial Conference
Authors
Abstract
Okra leaf has contributed greatly to the diet of Ibarapa people as one of the most popular soups in the area and
also contributes immensely to the economic development of farmers in Ibarapa. Therefore, this study examined
the economic benefit of okra leaf production in Ibarapa cenral local government area. Respondents were selected
through a multistage sampling technique. In the first stage, two towns (Igboora and Idere) were purposively
selected. In the second stage, 80 Okra leaf farmers were randomly selected from Igboora and 60 farmers from
Idere, totaling 140 respondents. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The
results revealed that majority (82.14%) of the respondents were males with average age of 37years. Most (83.57%)
were married with family member to catered for. Large number (60.00%) of the respondents took farming as
their primary occupation with the average years of 9years. The average cultivated farm size was 3.52 hectares
and majority (70.00%) of the farms were inherited. Mixed cropping was mostly (83.57%) practiced. The gross
margin (GM) was ₦268,881.10 with the average profit (π) of ₦184,158.46. The benefit cost ratio (BCR) was 1.79,
this indicate 179% return on investment. Factors that influence economic benefit of Okra leaf production are;
age of the farmer, amount spent on labour, size of farmland, Household size, year spent in school (significant at
5%) and year of experience. Adjusted R2 was 0.654 which indicated 65.40% of factors that determined the profit
of Okra leaves production have been explained by independent variables. It was recommended that farmers
should be engaged in commercial production of okra leaf production.
Keywords
Economic, Benefit, Okra leaf, Production
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