Labour Productivity and Yield Determinants in Cocoa Farming: Evidence from Abia State, Nigeria

The study examined labour productivity and yield determinants among cocoa farmers in Abia state, Nigeria. A multistage purposive sampling technique was adopted in selecting 60 cocoa farmers from the two agricultural zones in Abia State. The analytical techniques used involve inferential statistics like percentages, means, frequency and percentages. Also Log-linear and multiple regression analysis were also used. The results indicated that mean ages was 39 and the use of family labour, hired labour, exchange labour and casual labour constituted 25.0%, 21.67%, 8.3% and 15.0% of labour-use portfolio while the share croppers carried the balance of (30.0%). Also under storey clearing was estimated as 18.3% and fertilizer application was 16.7 %. Labour was engaged more on agrochemical spraying while cocoa harvesting operations gave the averages of 35.0 % and 30.0 % respectively. Results showed that the coefficient of multiple determinations was 0.892.The coefficient for level of education was estimated as 0.809 with t-ratio of 14.308 at (p<0.001).Also farming experience has coefficient of 0.159 t-ratio of 2.169 at (p<0.05) and Farm size has -0.052 coefficient, t-ratio of-1.888 at (p<0.01) were significant determinants of labour productivity. Also multiple regression result of the determinants of output indicated that the coefficient of multiple determination was 0.870 Planting materials, fertilizer use and Capital were significant determinant of output among cocoa farmers at (p<0.001),(p<0.05) and (p<0.01) respectively. The result further showed that poor farm wages (labour payments) ranked highest (38.3 percent) among labour inhibitor in the study area. The study therefore recommends adequate policy that would encourage provision of capital and farm inputs to cocoa farmers.