REPOSITIONING VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION PROGRAMMES IN UNIVERSITIES FOR THE REALIZATION OF FOOD SECURITY IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA
Authors:
Ekezie, Anthony Imo A., Phd
Abstract:
The study hinges on repositioning vocational agricultural education programmes in universities for the realization of food security in Rivers State, Nigeria. The descriptive survey design was used for the study that has a population of 28 Agricultural education lecturers from Rivers State University, Port Harcourt and the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt. Two research questions guided the study. A 20-item self-structured questionnaire composed on a 5-point Likert scale and titled “Repositioning Vocational Agricultural Education for Food Security Questionnaire (RVAEFSQ)”, was used for data collection. RVAEFSQ was face-validated by two experts in vocational agricultural education from Niger Delta University, Amassoma, Bayelsa State. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach’s Alpha method which yields a reliability coefficient of 0.89. Mean and the standard deviation was used for data analysis. The result revealed that inadequate lecturers, unavailability of pilot farms, poor research funding and poor teaching facilities among others are major challenges of vocational agricultural education in Rivers State. Thus, it was recommended that Government should enhance the quality of vocational agricultural education in universities in Rivers State through the provision of pilot farms, adequate funds, training facilities among others so as to guarantee food security in Rivers State, Nigeria.