ANALYSIS OF GRADUATING STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS AGROPRENEURSHIP: EVIDENCE FROM SOUTH WESTERN AND NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

The study examined student’s perceptions, attitudes and participation in agropreneurship
through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), with focus on household
resources dependency. The study employed multistage procedure to extract necessary
information from students using a well-structured questionnaire. The study was analysed using
5-likert rating scales with T-test. The result of the perceptions and attitudes statements indicated
a significant and positive perception about agropreneurship recognizing it as an agribusiness
venture with high prospects of success in Nigeria with a (mean=3.61, p-value of 0.000) was
significant and ranked first while least perceived statement towards agropreneurship was that,
students disagreed with the statement agropreneurship does not provide maximum profit and
income with a (mean=2.30, p-value of 0.000). The results of household dependency also showed
a high dependency of students on the statement that without household support they would not
engage in agropreneurship with a (mean=4.72, p-value of 0.000) while the least ranked and
insignificant statement that household farming experience motivates their participation remain
undecided among students with a (Mean = 3.39, p-value = 0.892). The statement was
insignificant. In conclusion, the study found out that agropreneurship had positive perception
and attitudes towards Technical and Vocational Education and Training with high dependency
on household resources among graduating students.