Final Report: Survey on Wealth Creation and Poverty Alleviation through Young Dynamic Agripreneurs in Ekiti State

The project, led by Abuad-Censac, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria, was funded by USAID's Development Cooperation Strategy goal of Reduced Extreme Poverty in a more stable, democratic Nigeria. The principal investigator, Adarabioyo. M. Idowu, and Dr. Olawale O. Awe, collaborated with the Ekiti State Government to achieve this goal. The project's major aim is to determine the predictors of youth engagement in agribusiness and rural farming in selected Local Government Areas of Ekiti State, Nigeria. The specific objectives include determining how socioeconomic variables affect the choice of youths in agriculture and agribusiness, measuring how socio-psychological profiles affect the choice of agriculture/agribusiness among the youths in Ekiti State, Nigeria, and measuring how attitude towards agriculture/agribusiness affects the choice of youths in Ekiti State in engaging in agriculture/agribusiness. A well-structured closed-ended questionnaire was designed as a tool for data generation for this project. The questionnaire consisted of six sections, addressing biodata of the respondents, socio-psychological profile, attitudes toward agriculture/agribusiness, profitable areas of agriculture/agribusiness, most preferred agriculture/agribusiness, and wealth creation. The questionnaire was deployed to the sixteen local government areas of the state, with a response rate of 85.95% and a non-response rate of 14.05%. Preliminary results from the data exploration using RStudio indicate that a large number of youths, both male and female, are very much interested in agricultural practices. The results also show that the more youths are empowered to practice agriculture, the more the yields. Socioeconomic variables, such as age, education, and occupation, affect the choice of agriculture/agribusiness. The results also indicate that students are contributing and heavily investing in agriculture, with a large number of students involved in livestock/piggery farming. The socio-psychological profile of the respondents also affects the choice of agriculture/agribusiness. A reasonable number of respondents are favourably disposed towards agriculture, with a larger number of favourably disposed respondents involved in livestock/piggery farming. The results also show that people willing to go into personal businesses have a greater preference for livestock/piggery farming than any other agricultural practices. The findings of this study have significant implications for policy intervention in Ekiti State and Nigeria. The results suggest that engaging young dynamic agripreneurs in agriculture and agribusiness can lead to wealth creation and poverty alleviation. The study's findings can inform the design of appropriate intervention strategies to promote youth engagement in agribusiness and rural farming in Ekiti State and Nigeria.