ORIGINAL PAPER
From school to the farm: an assessment of the motivation to become agropreneurs among students
in Lagos owned tertiary institutions
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Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management, Lagos State University, Nigeria
Online publication date: 2023-06-27
Publication date: 2023-06-27
NSZ 2023;18(2):89-108
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
In spite of the strategic importance of agriculture to the development of nations, agricultural-based
entrepreneurship (agropreneurship) seems to be an unfavoured option among youths schooling – and
living- in urban settlements such as Lagos state, Nigeria. Despite the various agropreneurship initiatives
being implemented by the Lagos State Government through its agencies and institutions, the youth or
young entrepreneurs desire to pursue their careers in the service, technology, fashion and entertainment
sectors where it is happening and trendy. Consequently, the push to become agropreneurs seems to be
somewhat restricted to undergraduate students motivated by factors unknown to many researchers and
policy makers. This study assessed the factors that motivate Lagos-owned tertiary institutions’ undergraduate
students to become agropreneurs. Using the concurrent transformative mixed method research
design, data were collected from young agropreneurs (campus farmers) who are undergraduates of the
three tertiary institutions – Lagos State University (LASU), Lagos State University of Education (LASUED),
Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUSTECH) – owned by Lagos State using the interview
and questionnaire methods. Respondents were asked about their motivations to start a business
in the agriculture sector, and results of the analysis using simple percentage and content analysis brought
to the fore that, among the key motivators for the respondents to start their agro-based businesses were
to challenge themselves to think out of the box, becoming independent with the ability to control their
time, pursuing their dream, elevating their socio-economic status, and to solve the food crisis. Based on
the results, this study recommended amongst others that, government through its specialized ministries,
departments and agencies should create policies that encourages campus farming project and also, grants
should be made available to campus farmers based on the quantity of their produce yearly.
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