Revitalization of Agricultural Education for Self-Reliance in Colleges of Education for Enhancing Students' Involvement in Agriculture in Benue State, Nigeria

This study assessed the Revitalization of Agricultural Education for Self-reliance in Colleges of Education for enhancing students’ involvement in Agriculture in Benue State, Nigeria. Three research questions guided the study, and three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a survey design. The population was 500 respondents. The sample of 365 respondents, which comprised of 65 lecturers and 300 NCE II students, was drawn purposively from the population. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire titled Revitalization of Agricultural Education for Self-reliance Questionnaire (RAESRQ) was structured by the researchers from the literature review and used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts. The internal consistency reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was determined using Cronbach alpha (α). The reliability coefficient of 0.75 was obtained. The data collected were analyzed using means and standard deviation to answer research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study were that revitalization of agricultural educa­tion for self-reliance curriculum in colleges of education for enhancing students’ involvement is needed. This is vital for encouraging students to have positive attitudes toward agriculture and training-retraining of lecturers for adequate competencies in the implementation of agricultural education activities in colleges of education. Besides, these will enable production for efficient graduates for self-reliance and job empowerment in Benue State and the nation at large.