Talent in Agriculture - Sahel Quarterly - Volume 23

2014

This paper examines the career trajectories of 66 distinguished African agricultural professionals. Based on in-depth qualitative interviews, the paper explores the answers to two critical questions: How can Africa motivate its youth to consider careers in agriculture and agribusiness? How can agricultural education and training (AET) institutions better prepare youth for productive careers in agribusiness?

Journal of Agricultural Extension, 2018

The study assessed the Field Practical Training (FPT) programme of Agriculture Faculties in Edo and Delta States, Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 150 final year students from three public universities. Data were collected with questionnaire and analyzed. Findings show that more of the respondents were males (56.7%), the majority (68.0%) were 20-24 years while 93.3% were single. Highest proportion (27.3%) of respondents were from the department of Agricultural Economics and Extension Services. The respondents had higher positive attitudes towards a career in agriculture after the practical training (=3.03) than before FPT (=2.64). They perceived that they were competence in many tasks carried out especially those related to Crop and Animal Science (≥2.5). There was significant difference in respondents' perceived level of competence before and after FPT at 5% level of significance in all the eight (8) thematic areas, the highest was Animal science (t=7.66). Constraints perceived to militate against achieving entrepreneurial development of youth through FPT included the use of crude farm implements (=3.19), dearth of improved technologies and inputs (=3.14), poor exposure to farmers' condition (=3.13), and inadequate funding of the programme (=3.12). FPT enhanced competence and positive attitude towards career in agriculture. Addressing the constraints would better prepare youth for agripreneurship.

There is an increasing need for universities to produce graduates with strong technical skills, practical experience in their areas of specialization, ability to work with rural smallholder farmers and yet with broad development perspectives. One of the ways in which the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) is filling this gap is through the Field Attachment Program (FAPA). The FAPA grants are awarded to students who have completed or just about to complete their theses study. The FAPA provides funding to enable students go for 3-6 months attachment to the communities where they conducted their research, so that they give feedback and design follow-up activities. It is also used to support attachment to industry, farmer organisations, research institutions, etc. This paper shares experiences from the last five years of the program. The information shared is drawn from data and analysis from review of individual progress implementation reports submitted by the awardees. From 2010 – 2015, RUFORUM under its Competitive Grants Scheme (CGS) awarded 148 FAPA grants to its funded graduate students. A synthesis of the data reveals that the RUFORUM FAPA has enhanced student skills and capacity to engage with communities. Students indicated that they acquired field-based experience of working at community level as well as opportunity to transfer knowledge to farmers, and other stakeholders. In addition, students reported that farmers were very impressed that the field attachment enabled students to go back to the communities where they had conducted their research and shared and disseminated their research findings. Based on this feedback, the FAPA has achieved its set objectives. The Award offers an effective mechanism to skilling graduates and preparing them for the labor market while at the same time linking farmers to research outputs for which they engaged as part of participatory action research. The FAPA process therefore provides a mechanism of how university-based research teams can effectively engage and prepare graduates for future work. Interest in FAPA has increased over the years as demonstrated by the increased number of applications. It is recommended that the FAPA be institutionalized by universities as a mechanism of facilitating both graduate and undergraduate students to participate in community activities while enhancing their practical skills. Résumé Il existe un besoin croissant pour les universités de produire des diplômés possédant de solides compétences techniques, une expérience pratique dans leur domaine de spécialisation, une capacité de travailler avec les petits exploitants ruraux et en même temps ayant de larges perspectives de développement. L'une des façons dont le Forum régional des universités pour le renforcement des capacités en agriculture (RUFORUM) comble cette lacune est à travers le Programme de placement en stages des diplômés dans des milieux où ils ont fait leurs recherches (FAPA). Les subventions pour FAPA sont accordées aux étudiants qui ont terminé ou sont sur le point de terminer leurs thèses de fin d'études. Le FAPA fournit des fonds pour permettre aux étudiants de retourner vivre pendant 3-6 mois avec communautés où ils ont fait leurs recherches, de sorte qu'ils partagent des résultats de leurs recherches et conçoivent des activités suivantes. La subvention est également utilisée pour soutenir le stage dans l'industrie, les organisations paysannes, institutions de recherche, etc. Cet article partage des expériences des cinq dernières années du programme. L'information partagée est tirée de données et de l'analyse des revues des rapports de progrès individuels présentés par les lauréats. De 2010-2015, RUFORUM, sous son régime de subventions concurrentielles (CGS), a accordé 148 subventions FAPA aux étudiants des cycles supérieurs qu'il finance. Une synthèse des données révèle que le RUFORUM FAPA a amélioré les compétences et les capacités des étudiants à collaborer avec les communautés. Les étudiants ont indiqué qu'ils ont acquis une expérience sur le terrain de travailler au niveau de la communauté, ainsi que la possibilité de partage et de transfert des connaissances aux agriculteurs, et d'autres parties prenantes, et apprennent aussi des agriculteurs. En outre, les étudiants ont déclaré que les agriculteurs ont été très impressionnés que le FAPA a permis aux étudiants de revenir aux communautés où ils avaient mené leurs recherches pour partager et diffuser leurs résultats de recherche. Sur la base de ces commentaires, le FAPA a atteint ses objectifs fixés. Le Programme offre un mécanisme efficace pour rendre les diplômés compétents et les préparer pour le marché du travail tout en reliant les agriculteurs aux produits de la recherche dont ils ont fait partie dans le cadre de la recherche participative appliquée. Le processus FAPA fournit donc un mécanisme de la façon dont les équipes de recherche universitaires peuvent s'engager efficacement et préparer les diplômés pour les travaux futurs. L'intérêt pour FAPA a augmenté au fil des ans, comme le démontre le nombre croissant d'applications. Il est recommandé que le FAPA soit institutionnalisé par les universités comme un mécanisme pour faciliter à la fois les diplômés et les étudiants de premier cycle à participer dans des activités communautaires, tout en améliorant leurs compétences pratiques.

2009

While modest success has been realized in agricultural development in Africa, food insecurity and challenges brought about by global changes continue to impact greatly on human health, energy and environment. As Africa endeavours to achieve the first of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), that is, reducing the number of poor and hungry people by one-half by the year 2015, these challenges have affected the drive towards the MDGs. Success of African agriculture and rural development will certainly come from good governance, strong rural policy, new research institutions and dedication to relevant training. This demands knowledge-based agricultural capacity development and focused science-based policies and institutions. This paper present new approaches to postgraduate level training in agriculture and related sciences that are deemed to have lasting impressions on the drive to make African Universities relevant to current and future agricultural and rural development need...

2014

This research aimed at determining farmers’ adaptive trend to agricultural innovations issues in Akwa Ibom State. The specific objectives were to assess the perception of farmers towards innovation issues awareness, identify adaptive trends on innovations issues and barriers to adaptation of innovation in Nigeria’s agriculture. Descriptive survey design and a multi stage random sampling technique was used to draw one Thousand (1000) subjects for the study. A validated and reliable structured questionnaire was used to obtain information from the respondents. Percentage, mean and ttest statistical tools were used for data analysis. The findings revealed that most farmers are not fully aware of innovations issues in the state. Trends in farmers’ adaptation to Innovation issues including Plantain/banana rapid multiplication, heat synchronization technology, and Farm Mechanization technology among others indicated low rates. Identified barriers were education/training, age, financial sta...

Greener Journal of Educational Research, 2013

The paper aims to advocate the adoption of agripreneurship education as a special form of entrepreneurship education for the enhancement of the potential of agriculture sector to ensure food security. It argued that food security is necessary for supporting the dream vision of Nigeria to be among the league of 20 largest world economies by 2020. Accordingly, agripreneurship education should be compulsory from basic level to tertiary level of our educational system. In order to support this, agripreneurship mentoring for young graduates must be carried out by successful agribusinesses and a tax regime put in place for agripreneurship education. Further, the paper showed how such model could translate into increased economic opportunities and food security for the household and the nation. Finally, a policy to support access to international markets for agricultural commodities, endowment for research in agripreneurship, national merit award to successful agripreneurs and increased support to the study of agricultural based courses were recommendations.

IAEME, 2019

Agricultural engineering came to prominence shortly after people developed interest in it in Nigeria. Most of the engineering services required in agriculture were carried out by specialists from other fields such as civil engineering and agronomy. But with time, interest of people piqued in line with agricultural engineering education and avenues for training were sought abroad. This continued till the early 1960s when options for local training were made available. Over time, agricultural engineering education in Nigeria has witnessed transformation but it still cannot be compared with practices globally. This study relies on relevant literature to address the topic under consideration. It seeks to analyze the future of agricultural engineering education in Nigeria taking into cognizance the events that might likely shape agricultural production in the future.

2017

Agricultural universities in Africa have a core responsibility to develop and implement relevant curricula to produce well trained human resource to guide stakeholders in production, value addition and marketing to meet the expected quantity and quality requirements of modern agri-food supply chain systems. This paper presents innovations in agricultural training curricula at Gulu University in Uganda designed to produce the breed of graduates, blending in character, the attitudes, hands-on practical skills and knowledge to exploit and succeed in the commonly perceived “non- attractive” labour market of the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. Key ingredient in curricula orientation, as a critical input in modelling that type of graduate, is the integration of community engagement and agri-enterprise development in student training. Making use of the Bachelor of Agriculture (BAG) degree programme, the pioneer programme that kick-started the new training orientation, we conduct...

Journal of development and communication studies, 2016

There is an urgent need to develop capacity in African agricultural education and training (AET) through innovative methods that achieve the goals of food security, economic development and poverty reduction. InnovATE (Innovation for Agricultural Training and Education) is a five year, demand-driven USAID-funded program with a mandate for capacity development in AET systems in low income and emerging economies across the world. Though innovATE's primary focus is on formal AET, the program's activities and findings are oriented toward developing capacity across agricultural knowledge and information systems (AKIS), which includes agricultural extension activities. Through innovATE's learn-design-train approach, the program has developed capacity through various activities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). These have included the generation of AET system studies on countries and thematic issues, the creation of an online Community of Practice, in-country assessment of AET systems in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the provision of training workshops for capacity development in Senegal and Mozambique. Evaluating the results of these activities provides the context for critical examination of the most effective approaches for AET system capacity development in SSA.