THE PERCEPTION OF AGRICULTURAL STUDENTS AND SELF-EMPLOYMENT IN AGRIBUSINESS:

Abstract

Graduate job placement has become a major challenge facing developing countries including Ghana. This has pushed some policy makers to advocate for the training of graduates who are skill oriented to go into self-employment ventures. University for Development Studies (UDS) is one of such Institutions in Ghana mandated to train self-employed graduates. This paper therefore examines the perception of UDS students in Ghana towards seeking self-employment in agribusiness sector. Structured questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument for this study. Students’ perception regarding the prospects of agribusiness as a self-employment avenue was measured on a five point Likert Scale. The study found that students interviewed generally agreed that agribusiness has a high potential for self-employment and that there is high prospects of its success in Ghana. However, students generally were undecided with regards to the easiness of self-employment creation in agribusinesses. More than half (54.8%) of the 192 students interviewed do not prefer agribusiness as an avenue for self- employment after graduation. Investment in self-employment of agriculture graduates is likely to fail if proper sensitisation is not made to motivate agricultural science graduates to go into agribusiness. The paper also recommends a review of self-employment policies to capture the interest of agriculture graduates because the current packages are not attractive to them.