Labour Arrangements in Cassava Production in Oyo State, Nigeria

The study examined the effects of labour arrangements on the profitability of cassava enterprises in Oyo North Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted for data collection, while data were analysed using descriptive statistics and budgetary analysis. The results show that the prevalent labour arrangements for cassava enterprises are: a combination of Family, Hired and Contract labour (38.9%); Family-Hired labour (27.8%); Family-Contract labour (31.1%). The gross margin per hectares across labour arrangements are N279481.99 (all-labour), N286044.24 (family-hired), N216940.10 (familycontract), and N235000.00 (family only). The returns on a naira invested on variable costs across different labour arrangements for cassava enterprises are N2.04 (all-labour), N3.66 (family-hired), N2.37 (familycontract), and N2.61 (family only). This implies that a unit (N1) variable cost in the various labour arrangements of all-labour, family/hired, family/contract and family only in cassava production will yield a marginal return of N3.04, N3.66, N2.37 and N2.61 respectively. Family-hired labour arrangement yields higher marginal return per unit of manday and one naira spent than all other arrangements. The study recommends among others the application of laboursaving technologies and an optimum combination of various labour arrangements to reduce the cost of labour used in cassava production.