Educators’ perception on the choice of agriculture as a career among youth in Oyo state, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the educators’ perception on the choice of agriculture as a career among youths in Oyo State. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 207 respondents (teachers and parents) who were randomly selected for the study. Data were collected on respondents’ personal characteristics, awareness of career options in agriculture, preferred occupation for wards, factors determining preference and perception of respondents on agriculture as a career choice. Data were analysed using frequency counts, percentage, mean and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) at 0.05 level of significance. The mean age of the respondents was 36.8years. More of them (55.1%) were males, married (56.0%), had some form of tertiary education (82.1%) and employed in the education profession (43.5%). Many (54.6%) had high level of awareness of the career opportunities in agriculture and ranked agriculture as the second most preferred occupation for their wards (x? =2.23) after medicine (x?=2.24). High income expectations (x?=1.63) ranked as the most important factor determining preference for any career and more of them (54.1%) had favourable perception of their wards taking up a career in agriculture. Significant relationship existed between awareness of career options in agriculture and perception of agriculture as a career choice (r=0.255, p?0.05). Educators were favourably disposed to agriculture as a career choice for their wards, although considered second to medicine. Stakeholders should sustain the public awareness of the potentials of agriculture as a high income generating occupation.