Challenges Faced by Agricultural Education Students with Entrepreneurial Projects

Abstract

All students at the Faculty of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences at University of Eswatini, Luyengo Campus are required to take additional entrepreneurial courses in order to address issues of graduate unemployment. Unfortunately, the achievement of this initiative has not been fully realized yet. There is no study conducted on the challenges faced by Agricultural Education students with entrepreneurial projects at the University of Eswatini. Thus, this study sought to investigate the challenges faced by Agricultural Education students with entrepreneurial projects at the University of Eswatini. The study was a descriptive-correlational survey design employing questionnaires for data collection. A census comprising of 88 students in the Department of Agricultural Education and Extension of Year 3 and 4 students was used. The instrument was validated by three experts from the Department of Agricultural Education and Extension; and one from Consumer Sciences. Pilot-testing was done using 30 students from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management. Findings indicate that the students have the following challenges: lack of cooperation amongst the members, inadequacy of tools and machinery, debtors unable to pay on time, theft of produce in the farm, and so on. Thus, the success of the entrepreneurship is hindered by the challenges that have been identified in the study. Therefore, the recommendation made is that the university supervisors should work closely with the students doing the entrepreneurship projects so that they can assist in tackling the challenges.