Abstract
This study identified entrepreneurial skills required by secondary school graduates in cucumber production in Enugu and Benin Cities in Nigeria. Descriptive research design was used for the study. Three research questions were answered for the study. The population for the study was Agricultural Science Teachers and Agricultural Extension Officers in Enugu and Benin City. The sample for the study was 120 respondents made up of 80 Agricultural Science Teachers and 40 Agricultural Extension Officers which was drawn using random sampling technique. A 36-item structured questionnaire titled: Cucumber Production Questionnaire (CPQ) was used to collect data for the study. The instrument was validated by three experts. Cronbach Alpha method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.80. The data collected were analyzed using weighted mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. It was found that secondary school graduates in Enugu and Benin Cities, Nigeria require 13 entrepreneurial skills in pre-planting and planting operations for cucumber production, 8 entrepreneurial skills in post-planting operations for cucumber production and 14 entrepreneurial skills in harvesting/handling and marketing operations for cucumber production. From the findings of this study, it was concluded that all the items identified except one were above the cut-off mark of 2.50. This indicated that secondary school graduates in Enugu and Benin City required the identified entrepreneurial skills for cucumber production in alleviating poverty and attaining food security. This can help the graduates to reduce the effects of dependency on their parents as well as making them to be self-reliant. It was therefore recommended among others that entrepreneurial skills identified by this study in cucumber production should be used to train secondary school graduates and other students and farmers for their employment as cucumber producers, integrating the identified skills into the curriculum of Agricultural Science for secondary schools for the purpose of adequate skill acquisition upon graduation and replicating this study by researchers at state or federal levels for the purpose of generalization.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Skills, Secondary School Graduates, Cucumber Production, Food Security.
Publication Date: 2023-12-09