Willingness to Venture into Agriculture-related Enterprises after Graduation among Final Year Agriculture Students of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta

Abstract

This study examined willingness to venture into agriculture-related enterprises after graduation among final year agriculture students of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) by randomly sampling 120 final year students from the three agriculture colleges in the university with the aid of structured questionnaires. Data collected were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. Results revealed that higher proportions of the students were males (53.6%), Christians (74.1%), with mean age of 24.08±2.37 years and had parents who were well educated. Majority (85.7%) were willing to venture into agriculture-related enterprises with livestock production enterprise (67.7%) been the most preferred enterprise. Major reasons for students’ willingness were identified to include students’ desire to be job creators and self employed, lucrative nature of agriculture and encouragement received during training. Lack of credit loan facilities for agriculture graduates and unavailability of infrastructural facilities such as storage, processing and marketing accesses were major reasons hindering students’ willingness to venture into agriculture-related enterprises. Chi-square analysis showed a significant association between students’ marital status (χ² = 14.368, p<0.05) and their willingness to venture into agriculture-related enterprises after graduation. This study concluded that Nigerian agriculture can still contribute significantly to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. For sustainable development to take place, this study recommended that affordable credit loan facilities should be made available to agriculture graduates as this will sustain their willingness to venture into agriculture-related enterprises.