SOCIO-ECONOMICS OF COCOA PRODUCTION IN ISE-ORUN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, EKITI STATE, NIGERIA

The purpose of this study is to investigate the Socio-economics of Cocoa production in Ise-orun local government area of Ekiti State Nigeria. To achieve this objective 120 questionnaires were administered in which 81 were recovered through a multi-stage sampling technique. The study revealed that Cocoa farming in Ekiti state is predominantly carried out among male farmers. The cost and return analysis revealed that the farm income per hectare for the average cocoa farm is N500, 220.25 while the profitability ratio is approximately 1.20 for an average cocoa farm. The effect of socio economics characteristics of cocoa farmers on quantity of Cocoa output per hectare was considered through Ordinary Least Square Regression. The result of the regression showed that four variables were significant which includes Age of Cocoa farmers (years) which was significant at 5%, Farm size (hectares) which was significant at 1%, hired labor, significant at 5% and amount spent on chemicals, which was significant at 1% level. The influence of age is negative, implying that cocoa output is higher for younger farmers. The other three variables have positive influence on the output of cocoa per hectare. The research also revealed that farmers in the study area do not process cocoa bean to produce any secondary products, they only sell the output to buyers after fermentation and sun-drying. Predominantly, five major problems were recognized which serves as constraints to the production of cocoa. The problem includes pest and diseases poor road network land tenure system, inadequate finances and unfavorable climatic conditions respectively.