COMPETENCIES AND AGRIBUSINESS SKILLS OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORKERS IN DEVELOPING RURAL WOMEN FARMERS IN NORTHEAST NIGERIA
Abstract
The study was aimed at determining the competencies and agribusiness skills of agricultural extension workers towards entrepreneurship development of the rural women farmers in northeastern, Nigeria. Proportionate stratified random sampling was used to select a sample size of 356 respondents (rural women farmers). A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics that used frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Correlation was also used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The study reveals that agricultural extension workers are competent (3.57 mean score) with moderate agribusiness skills (2.84 mean score), but their client (rural women farmers) has a lower level of required entrepreneurship development skills (1.09 mean score). Also, the competencies and agribusiness skills of agricultural extension workers impact the entrepreneurship development of rural women farmers. Entrepreneurship and agribusiness skills development are necessary for the empowerment of rural women farmers. The study recommended that government policies and programs on women’s social investment and poverty alleviation should be restructured and directed towards empowering them on their known occupation
Keywords:
Competencies, Entrepreneurship skills, Rural Women Farmers, Poverty, AgribusinessDownloads
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Copyright (c) 2025 Umar Abdulmumini, Bappa Njidda , Habu Bamusa
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