Willingness of Agriculture Students to be Involved in Agripreneur Career in Southeast Nigeria
Abstract
Africa has over 420 million youth that could be asset, conversely’ they continue to face challenges of unemployment, underemployment and poverty despite the potentials of agricultural sector in providing income-generating opportunities. The limiting factors for their participation in agriculture is not well documented. This study, therefore investigated how willing of agricultural students in agripreneurship in Southeast, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used. Southeastern Nigeria was purposively selection due to high unemployment and poverty. Two Federal Universities were purposively selected. Students were randomly selected proportionate to the population size. In all, 120 respondents were selected. Structured questionnaire was used to capture data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logit regression α=0.05. The study revealed that Sex (β=0.80), previous year of participation (β=0.17), vision to be an employer (β=1.26) and experience (β=2.90) positively influenced willingness to participate while high unemployment rate (β= -1.66), inadequate agricultural facilities and lack of government support/credit facilities (β= -2.15) and insecurity/herdsmen menace (β= -0.037) had negative effect. The study also found out that major perceived constraints in taking up agripreneurship were lack of start-up capital, inadequate infrastructural facilities, marketing challenges and poor accessibility to agricultural loan. Therefore, effective youth-oriented policies and innovative development strategies such as inclusion of agripreneurship training in their early school day training, revitalization of farm settlement scheme, provision of inputs and credit facilities among others are drivers to tap the energy of young Nigerian labour force for productive and beneficial ventures.
Keywords
Willingness , Agricultural students , Agripreneurship , Southeast Nigeria
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