Social Benefits of Secondary School Farms in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the social benefits of school farms in secondary schools in Rivers State. The study used two research questions and simple random sampling technique for data collection with a total of 560 questionnaires administered to teachers and students. The results showed that 75% of secondary schools in Rivers State had enough farm space and 85.71% of students used simple farm tools for their farm practice. Social benefits derived from school farms include enabling students to develop their farming skills (with mean score of 2.93); helping students form a useful background as future agriculturalists (2.80); helping students appreciate the fact that profitable farming was possible within the provision of available technology (2.73). Over 96% of schools surveyed lacked tractors, harvesters and about 85% of schools visited did not have properly laid out farm plots. Only 23.21% of schools visited had barns and livestock pens, 21.43% of schools had fishery equipment, 22.79% of schools surveyed had well established and managed fish ponds. This study recommended that school management should exploit all avenues to raise funds for procurement of facilities and material inputs needed in the secondary school farms in Rivers State, Nigeria.

Key words: Social benefits; school farms; secondary schools; farming activities; Rivers State Nigeria.