CAREER CHOICE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN AGRO AND AGRIBUSINESS AMONG UNDERGRADUATES IN SOUTH WEST, NIGERIA



CHAPTER ONE
1.0        INTRODUCTION
1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
            According to Wenneker and Thurik (1999) Entrepreneurship is the manifest ability and willingness of individuals to perceive new economic opportunities and seize these opportunities into the market.
            The importance of Entrepreneurship in economic development is the subject of much interest to academic and policy circles alike. Entrepreneurship is often credited with many positive changes in developing countries. At the very least, it is associated with job creation, wealth creation, innovation and its related welfare effects.

            A strong small business sector and Entrepreneurship are generally linked to a strong economy. Entrepreneurship can be conceived as a process, which involves the efforts of an individual in identifying viable opportunities in a business environment and obtaining and managing the needed to exploit those opportunities (Blanch flower, 2000). Entrepreneurship makes entrepreneurs to derive great satisfaction from their entrepreneurial work. Blanch flower also further said being an entrepreneur offers for greater security than being an employee else where.
            Entrepreneurship enables entrepreneurs to acquire wealth quickly and cushion themselves against financial in security (Blanch Flower, 2000). The field of Entrepreneurship involves the study of sources of opportunities, the processes of evaluation,  and exploitation of opportunities and the set of individuals who discover, evaluate, and exploit them ( Sheme and Venka Taraman, 2000). Entrepreneurship is a context dependent social process through which individuals and teams create wealth by bringing together unique packages of resources to exploit mark place opportunities (Ire land, HiH and Sirmon, 2003).
            Entrepreneurship is the mind set and process to create and develop economic activity by blending risk- taking, creativity and or innovation with sound management, within a new or an existing organization (Commission of the European communities, 2003). As a person gains greater insight into business and Entrepreneurship, his chances of succeeding in business improves.
            Entrepreneurs are the determinants of the creation of wealth and dynamism of a particular society when there is market for almost every thing a firm’s competitive advantage comes from its accumulated intangible assets (types of knowledge), brands, reputation, technology and decision and problem solving system. This means that entrepreneurs convert ideas into action products and services. Entrepreneurship is a major catalyst that drives the economy of most nations. Besides being the engine by which new ideas and novel approaches are introduced continually into businesses and market place, entrepreneurship guarantees economic returns from diverse form of activities- including research and development. In a more specific sense, entrepreneurship is the vehicle on which innovation rides, within this context, entrepreneurs are considered as “ Champions “ of some who convert ideas into products and reduce unemployment.
            There exists an increasing interest in entrepreneurship in many parts of the word, especially in developing economics. This is because entrepreneurial activity is considered as a means of revitalizing the economy and a way of coping with unemployment problems that characterize most developing economies. Thus more people, and very recently undergraduates, are being encouraged into owing and growing small businesses.
            Gender and entrepreneurial education were found to be positively influential among WELSH Students who reported that they are likely to set up a business venture within three years of graduation (Czuchiry and Yasin, 2008). Family and community background had an important influence in the orientation to wards entrepreneurship among the British, India and Chinese students (Stella, 2008). Wang and Wong (2004) found that entrepreneurial aspirations among Singaporean students were driven largely by family business experience, educational level and gender by hindered by in adequate business experience. Verhewl et al (2002) suggests a strong in direct effect of gender on self – employment decisions in Europe and U. S. A.
            In Nigeria, agribusiness enterprises span the entire agricultural production, processing, distribution and consumption spectrum from farm in put supplies through farms them selves. Included also are wood producers, furniture manufactures, food processors, food packers, food transporters, and food marketing companies. If agribusiness is stretched to the farthest limits, more than 75 of all business operations in Nigeria may be classified as agribusiness in form or typology and it provides a broad range of investment opportunities for both institutional and private investors (Onyido, 2006). Thus there are strong synergies between agriculture for development. Dynamic and efficient agribusiness spurs agricultural growth.
            A strong link between agribusiness and small holders can reduce rural poverty. Agribusiness refers to the back ward and for ward business linkages associated with agricultural production, the provision of finance, machinery, fertilizer, seeds, etc at the input end and the processing and marketing of food/ food stuff at the out put end. It is a modern form of agricultural business ventures operated strictly for profit (Olayide and Heady, 1982, Downey and Erickson, 1987). The agribusiness sector is structured into small medium and large scale enterprise. The survival and growth of small- scale agribusiness enterprise could be highly constrained by the physical, institutional and economic environment in Nigeria. Such constraint include in adequate utilization of information communication technologies, merger capital out lay (Adebayo et al, 2004), in adequate credit assistance (Opeolu and Oluwalana, 2004) Oluwalana et al 2004, Adebayo et al, 2004) in adequate acquisition of literacy and management skills (Abba and Mustapha, 2004). Agric business enterprise constitute a vital engine for the growth and development of Nigeria economy. Omereson (2004) observed that if this sector is to survive and grow in the present volatile business environment appropriate strategies must be developed and adopted by entrepreneurs.
Investment is the present sacrifice for future benefit.  Individual, firms and governments are all regularly in position to decide whether or not to invest, and how to diverse among   the options available. An individual might have to decide whether to buy a stock, plant seeds, undertake a course of training, a firm may decide to purchase machinery or conduct building and government may decide whether or not to build market.
Investment into agribusiness is widely propagated particularly by the managers of small medium enterprises projects, and is sometimes believed that because agribusiness returns have a low correlation to other investment, they have the potential to improve returns and reduce risk in a diversified portfolio hawking and Hastic, 1990).
            Agribusiness is basically agricultural related business which accounts for 12.1% of Nigeria Gross Domestic product (G M D) 2003- 2004 and accounts for almost 25% of national merchandise exports (126.1 billion in 2003- 2004 and it is the biggest manufacturing sector and accounts for 46% of total retail spending (Anon, 2010). However, despite the holistic benefits of agribusiness to our nation- Nigeria there seems to be dearth of knowledge on what drives the agribusiness investors on their investment decision in Nigeria
1.2       Problem Statement
            Despite the growth in venture capital funding, access to funding remain a problem for small enterprises in particular .However the growth and evolution of agribusiness has been researched, even as global development and market dynamic impact on the agriculture industry as a whole.
            Entrepreneurship is considered as a key to the ever growing problem of unemployment among graduates in Nigeria. Though, in Nigeria to day, both male and female unemployed ability increased drastically than other countries. Consequently, some people in the society have not agreed to determine their career by becoming entrepreneurs even when they are unemployed. Besides, the public and private sector endeavor to solve the unemployment problem, the number of job opportunities in those sector are not escalating to satisfy the demand of our labour force.
            Lack of profitable opportunities and high capital and fevered business risk that cannot and be mitigated in a cost effective manner are the main reasons for low agribusiness investment in Nigeria. Corruptions, bureaucratic harassment, the weak development of financial intermediation are all factors that impact negatively on the development of the private sector. Other determinants of entrepreneurship are such as individual characteristics including academic success and education background, performance on a test of cognitive ability personal confidence, greed, and willingness to take risks.
By stimulating entrepreneurship, the actual goal is especially to stimulate the people who will be successful after starting up their businesses considering the great variety within the group of (potential) entrepreneurs, there is need for specific insight in the factors that determine the success of starting entrepreneur, (Dijk, 1996).
            Nocke (2006) enumerated the factors that hinder the growth of entrepreneurship in the African setting to include inadequacy of market opportunity, poor access to finance, poor market information, and poor managerial skills. However, what actually determine career choice and entrepreneurship among Nigeria undergraduate is to effectively address the problem, yet not clearly understood. The study seeks to provide possible answer to the following questions.
-           What are socio- economic characteristics of undergraduates of agriculture?
-           What are the critical factors that influenced the students’ choice of course of study?
-           What are the factors that may influence their decision to be in agribusiness occupation?
-           Does family characteristics/ back ground influenced their career and occupations choice?
-           What are the constraints that may hinder their choice of agribusiness when they graduate?
1.3       Objective of the Study
The broad objective of the study is to investigate the determinants of career choice and entrepreneurship in agribusiness among undergraduates in south west, Nigeria.
            Specifically, the objectives are to;
(i)        Characterize the undergraduates of agriculture according to socio economic attributes;
(ii)       Assess the critical factors that influenced the students’ choice of course of study;
(iii)     Determine the factors that may influence their decision to be self employed agribusiness occupation;
(iv)      Analyze how family characteristics may influence their          career and occupational choice;
(v)       Assess the perceive constraints that may affect the students choice of agribusiness;
1.4       Hypothesis
Ho:      Family characteristics do not have significant influence on the
career and occupational choice undergraduate of agriculture.
1.5       Justification for the study.
            They study will further fill the existing gap in knowledge covering career choice and provide determinants In agriculture and provide a plat form for upcoming entrepreneurs and investor in the area to take off. The research work will also be immerse help to government, policy makers, planners, researchers, undergraduates students and other investor in formulating the best policies for economic development in agribusiness by agricultural graduates .
            Further more, the study will provide benchmark information on the important effect and contribution of entrepreneurial skill development occupational choice in agribusines among the undergraduates of agriculture in the study area in particular and Nigeria at large.
            It will also serve as a guide to government and other government agencies such as ministry of agriculture ( M O A ) and agricultural development programme (A D P ) and universities in the formulation and implementation of plans and policies particularly concerced with improving the entrepreneurial skills of undergraduate students of agriculture of study area.


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