Abstract:

Cashew is an important and commercially grown cash crop in Oyo state and Nigeria generally for its apple and most importantly the nuts. Cashew cultivation in recent years has experienced a yield decline due to few cashew farmers involved and moribund cashew trees. This paper aims to understand the perception of job-seeking graduates in Oyo state to cashew production and proffer recommendations that will help in promoting their participation. Some selected areas were considered in Oyo state and data were collected using a questionnaire on socio-demographic characteristics of the respondent, awareness on cashew tree and its importance, opinion of respondents to cashew farming, perception of respondents to money-making opportunities in cashew production and categorization of the respondents based on their level of perception. 270 respondents were considered in the survey. Data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical package. Results showed that 45.5% of the unemployed graduates were between the ages of 30-34 years. The study also showed that 90.7% know the economic importance of cashew while 89.3% know cashew farming as profitable. Farming ventures interest 73.3% of the unemployed graduates while 66.7% would want to venture into cashew farming. 52.2% of the job-seeking graduates had a favourable level of perception about cashew production. The perception of the job-seeking graduates is satisfactory as the favourability of their level of perception to cashew production is a little above average. Feasible loans or grants should be made available and easily accessible to job-seeking graduates to promote their involvement in cashew farming.