Rural Youth Livelihood Choice and Access to Land in Bauchi State, Nigeria

Nigeria is bestowed with favourable farming land and other natural resources capable of employing youth and makes the country food secured. Therefore, the study investigated rural youth determinants’ of livelihood choice between farming and non-farming and access to land in the study area. The study adopted multiple sampling procedures in stages to select 360 rural youth. Data collection was through the use of questionnaire, and was analysed using percentage; binary logistic regression and mean score. The results show farming was the livelihood choice for 60.6% of the respondents. Result from binary logistic regression shows: Gender (1.080); years of education (-0.102); parent occupation (1.288) and youth access to land were the main determinants for youths livelihood choice between farming and non-farming. In term of access to land, 50.3% of the respondents have an access to land of an average mean size of 1.4 hectare through inheritance (49.2%), purchase (30.1%) and rent (15.0%). Lack of fund, non-availability of land, high cost of purchasing and renting land, reliant on inheritance were perceived as the most severed constraint to youth  access to land in the study area. If farming is modernised in rural areas through effective policies and programmes that ensure equitable access to productive resources such as land and other inputs irrespective of youth socio-economic status,  that could be a breakthrough in addressing youth unemployment and food insecurity among other social problems in Nigeria.