Educational Requirements of Farmers for Entry into Grass Cutter Farming in Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The focus of the study was to identify the educational requirements of farmers for entry into grasscutter farming in Cross River State, Nigeria. Four research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. A survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study was 179, comprising 86 University agricultural lecturers from UNICAL and CRUTECH and 93 graduate extension personnel from CRADP. The entire population was involved in the study. A 39-item questionnaire tagged Educational Requirements for Grass Cutter Farming Questionnaire (ERGFQ) was used for data collection. Three experts validated the instrument. Cronbach alpha was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument and a coefficient of 0.81 was obtained. Weighted mean scores were used to answer the research questions while Independent t-test statistic was used to test the null hypotheses at a .05 level of significance. It was found that farmers required education/training on planning, stocking, management, processing, and 
marketing to be effective in grass-cutter farming. It was recommended that the training skill areas be used to guide the training of youths and adults on grasscutter farming as well as integrate the skill areas into the skill training programme for youths and adults in the state.