PERCEIVED INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN DELTA STATE

The aim of this paper is to examine perceived influence of agricultural education on community development in Delta State. The study adopted three specific objectives, three research questions and three null hypotheses. The study reviewed the variable stated in the research questions. Human development theory was used by the researcher to ascertained influence of agricultural education towards community development. The study reviewed some literature appraisal propounded by other scholars. Cross sectional survey research design method was used in the study. The population of the study comprises 500 hundred respondents and it includes teachers and farmers. A simple random sampling technique was used to select (200) respondents of 90 teachers and 110 farmers for the study. Questionnaire was the major instrument used for data collection and it was validated by two experts. One from Department of Measurement and Evaluation, while the second one from Department of Vocational and Technical Education all from University of Benin, Edo State. Data obtained from the respondents showed a reliability index of 0.89 using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Data collected was analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The finding of the result showed that agricultural education improve the development of community through provision job for over 99% of unemployed youths in Delta State. The study concluded that government need to provide loan for farmers in order for them to practice commercial farming system across the twenty five local government area of delta state for adequate food supply. The study recommended that university of agriculture should be created across the state that will education students on how to invest largely on both commercial and peasant farming system in Delta State.