Partnership Functions of Agro-Allied Industries and Agricultural Education Programme of Colleges of Education for Sustainable Manpower Development in Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

Agricultural education for manpower development is an enormous responsibility that cannot be left in the hands of government alone, thus requiring an effective collaboration of all stakeholders involved. The paper examined the extent of partnership functions of agro-allied industries and agricultural education programme in Colleges of Education for sustainable manpower development in Benue state, Nigeria. Four research questions guided the study and a null hypothesis was tested. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population of the study was 64 which comprised 29 Lecturers and 35 management staff from Colleges of Education and seven agro-allied industries respectively in Benue State. The entire population was used. The instrument used for data collection was a 42-item structured questionnaire titled;- “Partnership Functions for Manpower Development Questionnaire” (PFMDQ). It 
was face validated by three experts in Agricultural education after a pilot test. Split-half method was used to obtain a reliability coefficient of 0.82. Data collected were analyzed using mean to answer research questions and t-test to test the null hypothesis. Findings revealed that there is a low extent of partnership functions by agro-allied industries in the provision of instructional materials and lecturers’ in-service training for professional efficiency. It also showed that there is a low extent in the partnership functions of agricultural education programme to agro-allied industries. The study concluded that both the agro-allied industries and agricultural education programme seem to have failed in their partnership functions towards sustainable manpower development. It recommended enlightenment campaigns, putting in place public relations unit and government to monitor to ensure strict 
compliance to partnership functions highlighted for mutual benefit by both the agro-allied industries and agricultural education programme.