Nigerian Journal of Rural Sociology Vol. 17, No. 2, 2017 INFLUENCE OF LA OUR USE ON OIL 2ALM 22RODUCTION IN OKITI2U2A LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ONDO STATE, NIGERIA Odefadehan, O. O. .epartment of Agricultural E0tension and Communication Technology, Federal niversity of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria Correspondence contact detailsA olalekanodefadehanJgmail.com A STRACT The study assessed labour influence on oil palm production in Okitipupa 3ocal -overnment Area of Ondo state. Specifically it e0amined the socio1economic characteristics of farmers, determined the man1hour labour used for production activities in oil palm and palm oil production, determined the influence of labour usage on oil palm production in the study Area. The study also determined other factors that influenced the output of oil palm among 120 farmers who were randomly selected from five towns in the study area.. .ata was collected with structured Duestionnaire. 5ultiple regression was applied to determine the influence of labour usage on oil palm and palm oil production. Three functional forms of regression models were used namelyA 3inear, semi1log and Cobb .ouglass functions. The majority of the respondents were in the range of 41150 years. The mean age was 37 years and 71.7L of them were male. About 18L of the respondents used family labour in carrying out farm activities, 78.3L used hired and family labour, while 3.4 L made use of hired labour only on the farm. The average man1hour family labour used is 1703 and 8364 man1hour of hired labour was used. Out of the three functional forms; Cobb .ouglas functional form was selected as the lead eDuation, with R 2 of 0.44. 3abour usage had a coefficient of 0.055 and was statistically significant. 3evel of e0perience had a negative coefficient of 10.123 while educational level had a coefficient of 0.07. This shows increase in labour by a unit will increase output by 5.5L. 2t was recommended that credit facilities should be made available to the farmers to enable them pay for hired labour since it outweighs family labour usage. Keywords A 3abour1 supply, oil palm production, farmers, and income INTRODUCTION e0penditure on most farms. The cost of using hired Agriculture in the conte0t of the nation>s labour is high and so as the production and yield economy is tied to various sectors and is essential (4ello, 4ello, Essien and Saidu (2015, for generating broad1based growth necessary for The supply of labour in the oil palm development. Agriculture is fundamental for the enterprise has been faced with many challenges sustenance of life and is also the bed rock of which has either increased the cost of production economic development. 2t functions in the or made the production process difficult and provision of adeDuate and nutritious food for delayed beyond the e0pected turnaround time. This human development and raw materials for labour issue cuts across all other food and tree industries. 2n spite of the great roles played by crops in Nigeria. According to Odeleye (2015, POf agriculture in the economy of any nation, it cannot all the production inputs in a rain fed farming play these roles if there is absence or inadeDuate economy, human labour is now becoming crucial supply of labour. The supply of labour is very and limitingQ. 2n Nigeria, farm labour supply crucial in Nigerian agriculture where farmers are especially for planting, weeding and harvesting still largely dependent on the use of local farm constitutes serious bottlenecks. The crucial implements which are energy sapping. These crude importance of labour in oil palm and palm oil implements not only frustrate farmers but create production is not limited to smallholder farmers unnecessary e0penses and slow down the farming alone but also affects commercial farms. The processes (Abutu, 2014,. output of oil palm is affected by several factors The production of oil palm and palm oil which is imperative to research. 2n view of this, it can only succeed when there is timely and adeDuate is necessary to conduct research and ascertain the supply of labour in the production line. 2t is an socio1economic characteristics of the farmers, enterprise that reDuires high level of labour because determine the factors that influence the output of of its many production stages and several by1 oil palm, determine the man1hour labour products which can be further processed into reDuirement for production in oil palm and palm oil different final products. The situation is more production activities and determine the influence of worrisome with smallholder farmers who lack labour usage on oil palm and palm oil production in adeDuate capital to finance their farm operations the study area. and this has inhibited them from reali6ing optimum income. 3abour supply has been identified as one MET.ODOLOGY of the most important input in oil palm and palm The study was carried out in Okitipupa oil production in Nigeria. The wages of hired 3ocal -overnment Area of Ondo state, Nigeria. labour make up the largest single item of Okitipupa 3ocal -overnment Area (3-A, is one of 77 Nigerian Journal of Rural Sociology Vol. 17, No. 2, 2017 the 18 3-As in Ondo State. 2t lies between 50 45i )N aKb 1_1 K b 2_2 Kb 3_3 K b 4_4Kb 5_5K and 80 15iNorth of the EDuator and 4R35i and 22. .ouble 3og Function 4R50i E longitude within the tropical rainforest ln )N aKb 1ln _ 1 Kb 2 ln _ 2 K b 3 ln _3 K b4ln_ 3 6one of Nigeria. The rainforest is highly favourable Kb 5ln_ 5K to oil palm production because of the heavy 222. Semi 3og Function amount of rainfall available for greater parts of the )N aKb13og _1 Kb2 3og _2 Kb3 3og _3 year. 2t covers a total land area of 636 sD. km and Kb4log_ 4 Kb 5log_ 5 K has an estimated population of 233,565 people. An Ihere isohyperthermic soil temperature regime prevails in )N 3evel of output per year the area with total annual rainfall often e0ceeding _1N Annual labour sage (in man1hour, 2000 mm, while the soil temperature has a narrow _2N 3evel of E0perience range of 27 to 28RC (Esu . Akpan12diok, Otigbo, _3N Education level Aki, and Ofem 2014,. 2t is bounded in the East by _4N Age 2rele local government while to its west lies part of _5N Farm Si6e Odigbo 3ocal -overnment and the Atlantic Ocean. N Error term To its North lies Odigbo 3ocal -overnment while it is bounded in the South by 2laje 3ocal Measurement of 1ariables -overnment. The inhabitants of the local OutputA 5easured in tonnes of palm fruit and the government area are mainly )oruba of 2kale ethnic e0act tonnage was plugged into the eDuation group and )oruba language is widely spoken. The 3abour sageA 5easured in man1hour and plugged area is mainly agrarian in nature; with the the value was plugged into the eDuation directly cultivation of cash and food crops. E0perienceA 5easured in e0act years the farmers Okitipupa 3-A was purposively selected has been involved in oil palm farming from the 18 3-A in the state because of the high Educational levelA 5easured in number of years prevalence of oil palm farms in the area. From the spent to acDuire the highest educational level list of the rural communities in Okitipupa local assuming no class was repeated government area, five communities were randomly AgeA 5easured in the e0act chronological age of chosen. The selected communities are; 2lutitun1 the farmers. Oshoro, 2koya, 2ju1odo, Ayeka and Okitipupa. Farm Si6eA 5easured in hectares Twenty four farmers were selected systematically from the list of oil palm farmers in each of the five RESULTS AND DISCUSSION communities to give a sample si6e of 120 farmers. Socioeconomic characteristics Primary data were used in the study; the Age - Table 1 show that 41.7L of the primary data were obtained through the use of respondents were between the ages of 41 and 50 well1structured Duestionnaire administered to the years which represents the highest proportion of the respondents. The analytical tools used in this study respondents. This is followed by the respondents in were descriptive statistics and multiple regression the age category of 31140 years which accounted analysis. The descriptive statistics used were for 28.4 L of the farmers. This contradicts the freDuency distribution, percentages and mean. The finding of Alfred, Odefadehan and Adeyo (2014, multiple regression techniDue was applied using where the farmers in the age range of 31140 years three functional forms namely; linear, semi1log and were only 4.4 L. This is closely followed by Cobb1 .ouglas. The best of fit was selected after respondents in the age category of 21130 years considering the levels of estimated error, which accounted for 26.7 L. The age category of magnitude of R 2, number and signs of estimated 51160 and 61 and above both had 1.7L respondents regression coefficients. The functional forms are each. The average age of the farmers was 37 years. stated as follows; This average age indicates that these farmers are in 2. 3inear function the productive age stage. Table 15 Age distribution of respondents )ears FreDuencies Percentages 21130 32 26.7 31140 34 28.4 41150 50 41.7 51160 2 1.7 61 and above 2 1.7 Total 120 100 Mean? 37 SourceA Field Survey, 2016 78 Nigerian Journal of Rural Sociology Vol. 17, No. 2, 2017 Gender - Table 2 shows that 71.7L of the palm plantation. This is consistent with the findings respondents were male and 28.3L of them were of Raufu, Kibirige and Singh (2015, in their study females. 2t shows that majority of the oil palm of the perceived effect of climate change on cocoa farmers were male.