Email: F.O.Olaitan2@newcastle.ac.uk

Supervisors: Dr Elizabeth Oughton and Prof Sally Shortall

Project overview

Nigerian agriculture is dominated by aged people living in rural areas and usually operating at the subsistence level while young people continue to drift away from agriculture.

There has been a lot of research into willingness of agricultural students practising agriculture as a profession after school and several factors have been identified as a barrier.

However, little attention has been given to the influence of the educational system on the willingness of students and graduates of agriculture to seek a career in agriculture after school.

The essence of admitting students into agriculture departments is to train young people on agricultural practices. They could join the agricultural workforce and make huge impact in agricultural sector of the nation.

However many of agricultural graduates are not retained in agricultural enterprises after school. Research also shows that quite a number of agricultural students are not willing to pursue career in agriculture.

Most studies have been on the influence of other social institutions like family background, parental influence, community, peer group and nature of the profession with regard to individual willingness to study agriculture and choose agriculture as a career or profession.

Issues relating to the agriculture education system have received little or no attention.

This study therefore seeks to explore the influence of Nigeria's agricultural education system on the willingness of students and graduates to practice agriculture after school.

It seeks to make policy recommendation as to how more students may be encouraged from the educational perspective to seek careers in agriculture.