Tertiary Agricultural Science Students’ Perception of Small and Micro Agro-Enterprise Development as a Poverty Reduction Strategy in Imo State Nigeria.
The study of agriculture offers plenty opportunities for self-reliance, food security and even poverty reduction. Students of agriculture at the tertiary level have not told us their perception of the above assertion. Therefore, we carried out this research to ascertain students’ perception of small and micro agro-enterprises for poverty reduction. A total of 310 tertiary agricultural students were chosen from five (5) tertiary institutions in Imo state. Questionnaire was used to elicit response from the students and percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to analyse data obtained from the students. Results showed that numerous agro-enterprise ventures exist such as supply of agro-chemical (83.3%), seeds/seedlings supply (98%), crop production/reusing (99.3%), livestock production (96.78%), cassava processing (82.9%), sales of yam (98.7%), among others. Agro-enterprise create/generate employment (M=3.41), aid skill acquisition (M=3.14), increase house hold income (M=3.13), self-empowerment (M=3.33), mobilize savings (M=3.01) and the likes. These are poverty reduction potentials of small and micro agro-enterprise ventures. The challenges faced include lack of access to land (M=4.0), shortage of Fund (M=3.85), high interest rate for borrowing (M=4.0), power supply (M=3.91), among other challenges. It is recommended that access to land be improved by reviewing the provision of the land use act so that would-be entrepreneurs could have land to farm; infrastructural facilities should be provided to promote better business environment.
Keywords: Agriculture, agro-enterprise, poverty reduction, entrepreneur, small and medium
