EFFECT OF RURAL-URBAN MIGRANTS REMITTANCES ON ARABLE CROP PRODUCTION IN DELTA STATE, NIGERIA. Albert U. Ofuoku *

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1 Journal of Agricultural Sciences Vol. 60, No. 1, 2015 Pages DOI: /JAS O UDC: (669) Original scientific paper EFFECT OF RURAL-URBAN MIGRANTS REMITTANCES ON ARABLE CROP PRODUCTION IN DELTA STATE, NIGERIA Albert U. Ofuoku * Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Delta State University, Asaba Campus, P.M.B Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria Abstract: This study was conducted in Delta State, Nigeria, to investigate the effect of rural-urban remittances on arable crop production. Twenty percent (20%) of the registered arable crop farmers in Delta State were selected to arrive at 131 respondents for the study. Questionnaire and structured interview schedule were used to collect data from the respondents. Descriptive and inferential statistics and contingency tables were used to treat the collected data. It was discovered that most (69.5%) of rural-urban migrants were in the age bracket. The remittances from rural farm households were far higher than the remittances from rural-urban migrants. The little remittances from the rural-urban migrants were added to the funds of the rural farm household, farm labour and inputs. The remittances from rural-urban migrants did not make any meaningful contribution to arable crop production. It was recommended that governments should make the rural areas attractive to young school learners/graduates, embark on enlightenment programme to expose the youths to agriculture related self-employment opportunities in the rural areas; and create enabling environment for the youths to operate as self-employed individuals in the rural areas. Key words: migration, migrants remittances, internal migrants, arable crop production. Introduction Generally, migration is a regular occurrence in the life of a nation (Ofuoku, 2012). Migration is the movement of people from one geographical location to another, either on a temporary or permanent basis (Ekong, 2003). Rural-urban migration is the dominant pattern of internal migration. The movement of people is a selective process that affects individuals or families with particular economic, social, educational and demographic characteristics (Ofuoku and Chukwuji, 2012). Agriculture was the major sustainer of the Nigerian economy, but as Nigeria gained independence in 1960, there came the oil boom. This led to rapid * Correspoonding author: ofuoku@yahoo.com

2 50 Albert U. Ofuoku urbanization as a result of the influx of oil exploring and servicing companies into Delta State (Ofuoku and Chukwuji, 2012). The entry of missionaries encouraged western education. These missionaries established schools and a lot of parents who knew the value of western education sent their children to schools to acquire formal western education. With the oil boom, most of the educated youth no longer saw farming as a lucrative occupation. This prompted them to seek for employment in the oil exploring and servicing companies and ministries. According to Ofuoku and Chukwuji (2012), they started looking down on agriculture related activities, especially farming, as they preferred white-collar jobs to farming. This resulted to loss of agricultural labour to other occupations that were mostly available in the urban areas. Other factors such as better social opportunities and government policies favourable to cities have also helped to sustain rural-urban migration since the oil boom (Afolabi, 2007). However, Ekong (2003) suggests that it is difficult to strictly pin-point the causes of migration as such, since causation connotes absoluteness, whereas it is usually difficult to cite this or that factor as the absolute cause of an individual s decision to relocate. Therefore, it is more scientific (Ekong, 2003) to refer to the correlates of migration as factors that are systematically related to the phenomenon of migration without necessarily proving causation. Ofuoku and Chukwuji (2012) observed that most rural-urban studies tend to conclude that people migrate for economic reasons, and the need to escape from adverse social and physical conditions. Rotte and Vogler (2000), and Von Brown (2004), for instance suggest that people tend to be pushed from areas of decline to areas of prosperity. However, Karemera et al. (2000) argue that most migration decisions in North America are due to the political situation in the push areas. Migrants do not typically represent a random sample of the overall population (Ekong, 2003). Most rural-urban migrants rather tend to be young, formally educated, less risk-averse and more achievement oriented and also tend to have better network of connections in other areas than does the general population in the area of out-migration. Rural-urban migration negatively impacts on the quality of rural life, especially when such migrants carry away their needed productivity into the city (Adewale, 2005). He further stated that migration of young adults from rural to urban areas places a greater burden on the farmers. According to Ofuoku and Chukwuji (2012), rural-urban migration is related to the more time the farmers spend to cover the same area of land than he or she spends on leisure time and involvement in other social activities. Though rural-urban migration has been observed to affect agricultural production adversely, World Bank (2007) states that migration has been identified as a pathway out of poverty for rural households in developing countries. This implies that remittances from rural-urban migrants will be used to hire migrant labour to work on farms, increase farm size, or purchase farm inputs or all of the

3 Effect of rural-urban migrants remittances on arable crop production in Nigeria 51 aforementioned. Migration, by providing households with a source of income that is uncorrelated with agriculture, can facilitate investments in other activities, especially agriculture (World Bank, 2007). The major arable crops produced in Delta State, Nigeria include cassava, maize, yam, and vegetables. These are mostly transported to the urban areas for sale. Some of them are also sold locally. The farmers practice mixed cropping, catch cropping, or mono cropping. Adams and Page (2005) discovered that remittances are associated with much lower level of debt and severity of poverty in the developing world. For example, in Egypt, the number of poor farming households was found to reduce by 9.8 percent (Adams, 1986). Lachand (1999) demonstrated that the population of farming households living below the poverty line declined by 7.2 percent in Burkina Faso. Barham and Boucher (1998) observed for Nicaragua that migration and remittances increased the income of farming households. However, Kırdar (2009) argues that remittances from migrants are mostly for their personal savings awaiting them. The question to be asked now is to ascertain the effect of remittances from rural-urban migrants on arable crop production in Delta State, Nigeria. Put in another way, it is to ascertain if the remittances from rural-urban migrants provide for the short fall in labour and farm size that results from ruralurban migration. The major objective of this study was to investigate the effect or contribution of remittances from rural-urban migrants on or to arable crop production in Delta State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study seeks to: (i) determine rate of rural-urban migrants by age, (ii) ascertain the total average remittances from rural-urban migrants and total average remittances from rural to the migrants in the urban areas for the period from 2002 to 2011, (iii) determine the agricultural purpose, for which the money was put, (iv) ascertain the level of crop output for the period under study, (v) determine the contribution of migrants remittances to crop output. Hypothesis was that the remittances from rural-urban migrants do not contribute significantly to arable crop output in Delta State, Nigeria. Material and Methods The study area is Delta State, Nigeria. It is located between longitudes 5 00 and 6 45 East and latitudes 5 00 and 6 30 North. The state is 7,440 km 2 in size. Delta State is located in the mangrove swamp, and rain forest and fresh water forests in the south and central agricultural zones respectively. The north agricultural zone is under derived savannah vegetation cover. It is bounded on the north by Edo State, on the south by Bayelsa State, on the east by Anambra State,

4 52 Albert U. Ofuoku and on the west by Atlantic Ocean. It consists of 25 local government areas. The state is demarcated into three agricultural zones by Delta State Agricultural Development Programme (DTADP), the public agricultural extension agency. These include Delta North, Central and South Agricultural Zones with Agbor, Effurun and Warri as the respective zonal headquarters. The state headquarters of DTADP is in Igbuzor which is situated very close to the state capital. A lot of farming activities are carried out in Delta State and these include perennial and arable crop farming, livestock and fish farming. Its climate and soil encourage farming. Stratified random sampling was used to randomly select 20% of registered farmers by crops grown from the 3 agricultural zones as shown in Table 1 to arrive at a sample size of 131 respondents. Table 1. Selection of respondents. Agricultural zone Crops produced Number of registered farmers Sample size (20%) Cassava Delta North Yam 45 9 Maize Vegetables Cassava Delta Central Yam 44 9 Maize Vegetables Cassava 46 9 Delta South Yam 41 8 Maize 44 9 Vegetables 38 8 Total Data for the study were collected with the use of structured interview schedule administered to the respondents who had little or no formal education, while questionnaires were used to collect information from those who had a reasonable level of formal education. This was done with the help of the field extension agents who covered the respective areas of the farmers. Objectives i, ii, and iv were computed with the use of percentages while objectives iii and iv were computed with the utilization of contingency tables. Objective v was accomplished with the hypothesis. The hypothesis was tested with the use of inferential statistics such as Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. Migration rate was computed as the percentage of people in farm families within a stipulated age range who migrated.

5 Effect of rural-urban migrants remittances on arable crop production in Nigeria 53 Results and Discussion Rate of rural-urban migration by age of the rural farming members Table 2 indicates that the trend of rural-urban migration is age selective as most (45.8%) of the migrants for the past 10 years were in the age range of years. Likewise, 23.7% of the rural-urban migrants were in the age bracket. The data shows that most (69.5%) of those who embarked on rural-urban migration were in the age range of years. In contrast, those in the age brackets of 1 10 years (10.7%), (14.5%) and years (5.3%) also migrated to urban areas. This confirms findings of Rotte and Vogler (2000), as well as Ekong (2003), who stated that most migrants tend to be disproportionately young. Ofuoku and Chukwuji (2012) discovered the same trends in rural-urban migration in the Niger Delta area. Those in the 1 10 age bracket did not migrate on their own, but at the instance of their parents, relations and guardians. This set of migrants does not remit money as they are dependent and since they are school pupils. Therefore, these people are not considered in this study. Table 2. Rate of rural-urban migration by age of rural family members in the selected farming households for the period of Age (years) Number Migration rate Above This implies that the most productive age group that supplies the labour required or farming activities has been relocated through rural-urban migration. Those in this age group are those who normally provide most of the labour needed for heavy operations in land preparation, planting, harvesting and processing (Ofuoku and Chukwuji, 2012). Though, in theory, farmers could react by hiring labour from other rural settlements or from within their communities, in practice it is always costlier to do so. Most of the farmers are not wealthy enough to hire machines for land preparation and other required operations. They can only take their products to processing centres where they pay a token for machine services. Be that as it may, it is expected that remittances from the working rural-urban migrants may make provision for the labour shortage. Total average remittances from urban to rural migrants and from rural folks to rural-urban migrants

6 54 Albert U. Ofuoku Far more remittances were made from rural households to rural-urban migrants than from rural-urban migrants to farming households (Table 3). This implies that the remittances from folks in the rural areas to migrants in the urban areas were for survival of those in the urban area and education of the household members who migrated to obtain educational qualifications. Most of the working rural-urban migrants do not have steady jobs. This coupled with the high cost of living in the urban areas makes them struggle for survival in order to make both ends meet. In this process, they ask for fund from their homes in rural areas. Table 3. Aggregate average remittances from migrants in urban to rural areas and from household heads in rural to urban areas for the past 10 years (N). Farmers Delta North Zone Remittances from rural-urban migrants Remittances from rural folks to rural-urban migrants Difference Cassava farmers 21, , , Yam farmers 11, , , Maize farmers 14, , , Vegetable farmers 33, , , Delta Central Zone Cassava farmers 11, , , Yam farmers 21, , , Maize farmers 32, , , Vegetable farmers 22, , , Delta South Zone Cassava farmers 14, , , Yam farmers 12, , , Maize farmers 20, , , Vegetable farmers 26, , , This finding is at variance with Ekong (2003), as well as Dustmann and Mestres (2010) who stated that most migrants remit money regularly to their families for agricultural purpose and rural development, thereby helping to alleviate their financial burdens. It is very glaring that the reverse is the case here. The farming households in the rural areas currently alleviate the financial burdens of rural-urban migrants. This is attributed to the high level of unemployment and high cost of living in the urban area. Most rural-urban migrants get disappointed as jobs are not readily available there as expected by them. This prompts them to seek menial jobs.

7 Effect of rural-urban migrants remittances on arable crop production in Nigeria 55 Use of remittances from rural-urban migrants Most (95.4%) of the respondents used the little remittances to hire labour (Table 4). Judging from the amounts remitted to them, the remittances supplemented what they paid for the labour they hired. The farming households hired labour to make up for the labour they lost to rural-urban migration. Tuan et al. (2000), Ekong (2003), Adewale (2005), and Ofuoku and Chukwuji (2012) observed that agricultural labour tends to be depleted by migration of the ablebodied men from rural into urban areas. According to Ofuoku and Chukwuji (2012) tree crop plantations will continue to suffer from labour shortage problems because young men find it difficult to resist attraction to urban life and its amenities, which is distinguished from the dullness and monotony of life in rural settlements. Table 4. Utilization of remittances from rural-urban migrants by farmers. Use Cassava Yam Maize Vegetable Potato n=37 n=26 n=34 n=26 n=8 Hiring of land 2 (5.4) 2 (7.7) 8 (23.5) 10 (38.5) 2 (25.0) Hiring of labour 35 (94.6) 23 (88.5) 34 (100.0) 25 (96.2) 8 (100) Purchase of inputs 21 (56.8) 19 (73.1) 3 (8.8) 1 (3.8) 1 (12.5) Processing 10 (3.7) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) Figures in parentheses are percentages. There were multiple responses. Average output of farm produce The highest quantity (mean = 56,600 kg) of cassava was produced by farmers in Delta Central Agricultural Zone (Table 5). Delta North Agricultural Zone had the highest yam output (mean = 49,000 kg). The highest output of maize is in Delta Central Agricultural Zone (mean = 44,026 kg). Delta South Agricultural Zone produced the highest quantity of vegetable (mean = 19,311 kg). The lowest level of output of cassava, yam and maize in Delta South Agricultural Zone is attributed to the fact that the Zone is mainly riverine, with much of the land being waterlogged. The available land for production of these crops is highly limited. Table 5. Total average output (kg) of farm produce for the period of Produce Delta North Zone Delta Central Zone Delta South Zone Cassava 49,000 56,000 27,000 Yam 42,100 29,300 11,000 Maize 38,420 44,026 16,120 Vegetable 7,221 7,302 19,311 Source: Delta State Agricultural Development (DTADP), 2012.

8 56 Albert U. Ofuoku Contribution of migrants remittances to crop output Table 6 shows that remittances from urban areas had extremely weak and negative correlations with cassava output (r = 0.006). This implies that migrants remittances did not significantly contribute to cassava production. However, they had an inverse relationship. The higher the amount of remittances is, the lower is the quantity of cassava produced and vice versa. There was also an extremely weak and inverse relationship between remittances and yam production (r = ). It also means that the higher the quantity of yam produced is, the lower are the remittances from the urban areas. However, remittances did not make significant contribution to yam production. The very weak and inverse relationships imply that with a high level of the output of the crops, there is the tendency that the recipients of remittances from the urban areas would make more money and require less amount of money from the migrants in the urban areas. The farmers tend to send some part of the produce to help feed those in the urban areas and the recipients of the crop produce in the urban areas tend not to send money to the rural area. Since the farmers send food to the rural-urban migrants, they (the rural-urban migrants) do not contribute meaningfully to cassava and yam output. The contribution of rural-urban migrants is very minute. Table 6. Estimated correlation between remittances from urban areas and crop output. Variable Remittances Cassava Yam Maize Vegetable from urban areas output output output output Remittances from urban areas Cassava output Yam output Maize output Vegetable output Remittances from rural-urban migrants to rural households had very weak positive relationship with maize output (r = 0.368). This also implies that the remittances did not make any meaningful contribution to maize production. This is attributed to the fact that very little amount of money is received by rural farming households from rural-urban migrants. The remittances from rural-urban migrants had negative and very weak correlation with vegetable output (r = 0.130). This indicates that the more maize is produced, the lesser is the amount of remittances from rural-urban migrants to rural households. The implication is that with a high level of output, rural-urban migrants did not deem it necessary to send money home to their rural households.

9 Effect of rural-urban migrants remittances on arable crop production in Nigeria 57 In all, it implies that the amount of remittances from rural-urban migrants to their rural farming households is far lesser than the ideal amount of money required from them. Their remittances have not made any impact on crop outputs among rural farming households. This also goes to confirm the results in Table 3 which shows that remittances from rural farming households are far higher than the remittances from rural-urban migrants. Lipton (1980), cited by Miluka (2007), opines that there is a negative effect of migration on agricultural production, caused first, by substitution of labour force for leisure due to remittances. Yama (2004), cited by Deshingkar (2004), stated that although there is an effect of migration on agricultural production in China, total grain output fell by less than two percent. Conclusion Most rural-urban migrants were able-bodied young men. The average remittances from rural farming households to their rural-urban migrant members far outweighed remittances from the rural-urban migrants to their rural farming households. The little remittances from the rural-urban migrants were spent on farm labour and inputs. These were added to funds of the rural farming households for such purposes. The remittances from the rural-urban migrants did not contribute meaningfully to increased crop output of the rural farming households. Considering the findings of this study, it is recommended that: (i) The governments should make the rural areas attractive to able-bodied young men, (ii) Enlightenment programme should be organized for young school and university graduate self-employment opportunities (agriculture related) in the rural areas, (iii) Governments and non-governmental organizations should create enabling environment for these youths to work as self-employed citizens. References Adams, R.H. (1986): The effects of international remittances on poverty, inequality and development in rural Egypt. IFPRI Research Report 86. International Food Policy Research Institute. Washington, DC, USA. Adams, R.H., Page, J. (2005): Do international migration and remittances reduce poverty in developing countries? World Development 33(10): Adewale, J.G. (2005): Socio-economic factors associated with urban-rural migration in Nigeria: A case study of Oyo State, Nigeria. Journal of Human Ecology 17(1): Afolabi, M.O. (2007): Rural-urban migration and productivity in the Nigerian agricultural sector. Unpublished MPP Project, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada. Barham, B., Boucher, S. (1998): Migration, remittances and inequality: estimating the net effects of migration on income distribution. Journal of Development Economics 55(2):

10 58 Albert U. Ofuoku Deshingkar, P. (2004): Understanding the implication of migration for pro-poor agricultural growth. Dustmann, C., Mestres, J. (2010): Remittances and temporary migration. Journal of Development Economics 92(2): Ekong, E.E. (2003): An introduction to rural sociology. An introduction and analysis of rural Nigeria - second edition. Dove Educational Publishers, Uyo, Nigeria. Karemera, D., Oguledo, V.I., Davis, B. (2000): A gravity model analysis of international migration to North America. Applied Economics 32(13): Kırdar, M.G. (2009): Labor market outcomes, savings accumulation, and return migration. Labour Economics 16(4): Lachand, J.P. (1999): Envoi de fonds, inegalite et pauvreteau Burkina Faso. Working Paper Bordeaux, France: Center for Development Economics, University of Bordeaux, France. Miluka, J. (2007): The varishing farms? The impact of international migration in Albarrian family farming. ESA Working Paper No ftp//ftp.faoorg/docrep/fao/010/ai135e/ai135e00.pdf. Ofuoku, A.U. (2012): Urban-rural migration Delta State, Nigeria: Implications for agricultural extension service. Global Journal of Science Frontier Research, Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences 12(6):1-5. Ofuoku, A.U., Chukwuji, C.O. (2012): The impact of rural-urban migration on plantation agriculture in the Niger Delta region, Nigeria. Journal of Rural Social Sciences 27(1): Rotte, R., Vogler, M. (2000): The effects of development on migration: Theoretical issues and new empirical evidence. Journal of Population Economics 13(3): Tuan, F., Somwaru, A., Diao, X. (2000): Rural labour migration, characteristics, and employment patterns: A study based on China s agricultural census. Discussion paper No. 63. Trade and Macroeconomics Division, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA. Von Brown, J. (2004): Towards a renewed focus on rural development. Agriculture and Rural Development 11(2):4-6. World Bank (2007): World development report Agriculture for development. Washington, DC, USA. Received: May 21, 2014 Accepted: Јune 7, 2014

11 Effect of rural-urban migrants remittances on arable crop production in Nigeria 59 UTICAJ NOVČANIH TRANSFERA RURALNO-URBANIH MIGRANATA NA RATARSKU PROIZVODNJU U DRŽAVI DELTA U NIGERIJI Albert U. Ofuoku * Odsek za agroekonomiju i savetodavstvo, Univerzitet Delta State, Kampus Asaba, država Delta, Nigerija R e z i m e Ovo istraživanje je sprovedeno u državi Delta u Nigeriji, kako bi se ispitao uticaj ruralno-urbanih novčanih transfera na ratarsku proizvodnju. Dvadeset procenata (20%) registrovanih ratarskih proizvoďača u državi Delta je izabrano, što čini broj od 131 ispitanika. Upitnik i struktuirani intervju su korišćeni za prikupljanje podataka od strane ispitanika. Deskriptivna i inferencijalna statistika, kao i kontigentne tabele su korišćene kako bi se obradili sakupljeni podaci. Otkriveno je da je većina (69,5%) ruralno-urbanih migranata starosne dobi od 11 do 30 godina. Novčani transferi iz ruralnih poljoprivrednih domaćinstava ka gradskim su daleko veći od novčanih tranfsera koje šalju ruralno-urbani migranti. Mali iznosi novčanih sredstava pristiglih od ruralno-urbanih migranata su dodatna sredstva ruralnih poljoprivrednih domaćinstava, njihovom radu i inputima. Novčani transferi ruralno-urbanih migranata nisu imali nikakav značajan doprinos za ratarsku proizvodnju. Preporučeno je da bi vlade trebalo da učine ruralna područja privlačnim mladim učenicima/diplomiranim studentima, i da bi trebalo da uvedu program prosvećivanja kako bi pružili mladim generacijama priliku za samozapošljavanje u oblasti poljoprivrede u ruralnim područjima, kao i da stvore povoljno okruženje za mlade kao samozaposlene pojedince u ruralnim područjima. Ključne reči: migracija, novčani transferi migranata, unutrašnji migranti, ratarska proizvodnja. Primljeno: 21. maja Odobreno: 7. juna * Autor za kontakt: ofuoku@yahoo.com