Skills Required by Secondary School Leavers for Cashew (Anacadium Occidentale l) Production in Kogi State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study determines skills required by secondary school leavers for cashew production in Kogi state, Nigeria. Three (3) research questions and three (3) hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was Fifteen thousand six hundred and forty-eight respondents (15,648); while the sample for the study was Four hundred and ninety-eight (498) respondents which consist of One hundred and eight (108) Agricultural Extension Agents and three hundred and ninety (390) registered cashew farmers. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled “Skills Required for Cashew Production Questionnaire” (SRCPQ) which was validated by three experts and with a Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.84. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean ratings and standard deviation and t-test to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that all the 30 skill items identified were required by the secondary school leavers for cashew production. It was recommended that the identified skills should be packaged into the training programme for secondary school leavers.