Abstract:
The study aimed to identify factors that affect the decision
of tertiary agricultural students in Ghana to enter
agribusiness as a self-employment venture after graduation.
The results showed that tertiary agricultural students in
Ghana were predominantly males with little or no farming
background. They had a rather moderate propensity to
enter self-employed agribusiness. The propensity was based
on the perception that agribusiness was beneficial,
sustainable, and had a bright future. A significant and
positive relationship was found between the propensity to
enter self-employed agribusiness and availability of inputs,
training received by students and supportive policies.
However, a significant and negative relationship was found
between students’ propensity to enter self-employed
agribusiness and the desire for other competing enterprises
as well as risks and constraints in agribusiness. The most
important determinants of the decision of tertiary level
agricultural students to enter into agribusiness were found
to be attraction to other businesses such as NGOs, nonagricultural manufacturing industries and banks; training
received; perceived constraints; and needs for selfemployment in agribusiness. The results indicate that the
propensity of agricultural graduates to enter self-employed
agribusiness may be increased by (1) making agribusiness
attractive by increasing its competitiveness with respect
to other enterprises, ( 2) modifying the curricula to make
agricultural training at the tertiary level more practical,
(3) making it easier to acquire production inputs for
agribusiness, and (4) improving the policy environment
with supportive policies to minimize risk and constraints
in agribusiness.
