Strategies For Effective Cat Fish Production Required By Youths For Enhanced Agricultural Productivity, Youth Empowerment And Economic Recovery In Ebonyi State Nigeria
Egbo Beatrice Nkechi
Department of Agricultural Education, Enugu State College of Education Technical, Enugu,
Isiwu, E.C
Department of Agriculture / Home Science Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike
Keywords: Strategies, Effective, Cat Fish Production, Agricultural Productivity, Youth Empowerment, Economic Recovery
Abstract
The study aimed at identifying strategies for effective cat fish production required by youths for sustainable agriculture and youth empowerment in Ebonyi State Nigeria. Four specific purposes and research questions guided the study. The study was carried out in Ebonyi State Nigeria. The study adopted survey research design. The population for the study was 215 comprising 127 registered youth catfish farmers and 87 extension agents. All were involved in the study because of the manageable size. A 36-skill item questionnaire tagged: Strategies for Effective Catfish Production Required by Youths for Sustainable Agriculture and Youth Empowerment Questionnaire (SECPYSA YEQ) was developed by the researcher and used to elicit data. Three experts validated the instrument. Cronbach alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistence of the instrument and a reliability coefficient of 0.8] was obtained. Two hundred and fifteen (215) copies of SECPYSAYEQ were administered on the respondents and two hundred and twelve (212) duly completed copies were recovered and analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. The result of the study identified 8 strategies in planning, 14 strategies in stocking, 7 strategies in management and 7 strategies in marketing of cat fish required by youths for sustainable agriculture and youth empowerment in Ebonyi State Nigeria. Based on the above findings, the study therefore recommended that the identified strategies should be inculcated into the skill acquisition programmes for youths, workshops should be organized for the youths with financial incentives to embark on catfish production enterprise, youths should fall back to farm and take the advantage of their mental and physical prowess and make exploits in catfish production sub-sector, especially now that white collar jobs are not easy to come by and cat fish is in a high demand, government should encourage more people especially the youths by providing soft loans with low interest rate to the youths who are interested in catfish production but, are financially incapacitated