Nigerian student’s Assessment of the Cross-Border Agricultural Training Programme at Israel (by Nwokocha David Uchenna)

Abstract

In Nigeria, the importance of highly trained manpower has long been recognized and has been the basis for agricultural development policies and strategies since independence, and within the last decade, serious efforts were made to make Nigeria self-sufficient and reliant in food production by organizations and institutions within the nation of which the universities were not left out. It was against this background that the cross-border agricultural program was introduced by an NGO called Learning-by-Doing, and was the platform which saw a batch of fifty agro- students sent to Israel for an eleven months practical programme, in the Israeli’s kibbutzim. The NGO is chaired by a prominent nationalist and farmer, Chief Audu Ogbe and sponsored by two Nigerians and three Israelis. The organization has the following objectives; which are to:

1.  expose young Nigerian undergraduates of agriculture and agricultural related disciplines to modern and improved equipment and techniques used in agricultural production

2.      produce new breed of farmers, that will, employ modern and improved equipment and techniques in agricultural production

3.      produce good managers that can manage any farm or that can go into their own business

4.       produce well trained farmers that will make the country to become self-reliant in food production and

5.      Extend such development to other sectors of the economy (Abuja news web).

This article, thus, assessed the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) of the cross-border agricultural program between the Nigerian and Israeli institutions, and ascertained the knowledge gained among students during the program, with the aim of shading more light to the program for future plan and execution of similar programs.

Introduction

The acquisition and demonstration of advanced and practical agricultural activities is one of the key strategies to ensure sustainable agricultural development in the country. This can be achievable when there is proper and adequate training given to individual agricultural students and farmers who will subsequently use and transfer the knowledge and skill they acquire from their trainings. It has been indicated that increasing efficiency of production depends mainly on the extent to which agricultural producers can incorporate improved agricultural practices into their farming operations (Benor et al, 1984). However, despite the opportunities given to young undergraduates in the nation’s Universities to become self-reliant, potential employers of labour, and contributing positively towards agricultural development, an increase in food production in the country is yet to be achieved. As a result of the rising population of students, which do not balance with the available vacancies in the industrial sector, most of the graduates of agriculture are not adequately trained, not knowing in realities what the potential and challenges of being agricultural professionals are, which, in a way, tend to make the students less productive and out of turn with the art of farming that, they are supposed to promote and propagate.

The Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) is a Skills Training Programme designed to expose and prepare students of Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Technology, Colleges of Agriculture and Colleges of Education for the Industrial Work situation they are likely to meet after graduation. The scheme also affords students the opportunity of familiarizing and exposing themselves to the needed experience in handling equipment and machinery that are usually not available in their Institutions. On another note, the concept of learning-by-doing has been used by Kenneth Arrow in his design of endogenous growth theory to explain effects of innovation and technical change. Robert Lucas, Jr. (1988) adopted the concept to explain increasing returns to embodied human capital. Yang and Borland (1991) have shown learning-by-doing plays a role in the evolution of countries to greater specialization in production. In both these cases, learning-by-doing and increasing returns provide an engine for long run growth. Recently, it has become a popular explaining concept in the evolutionary economics and Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm. The only way a skill is developed— skiing, cooking, writing, critical thinking, or solving thermodynamics problems—is practice: trying something, seeing how well or poorly it works, reflecting on how to do it differently, then trying it again and seeing if it works better.

There is really only one way to learn how to do something and that is to do it. If you want to learn to throw a football, drive a car, build a mousetrap, design a building, cook a stir-fry, or be a management consultant, you must have a go at doing it. Throughout history, youths have been apprenticed to masters in order to learn a trade. We understand that learning a skill means eventually trying your hand at the skill. When there is no real harm in simply trying we allow novices to "give it a shot." Parents usually teach children in this way. They don't give a series of lectures to their children to prepare them to walk, talk, climb, run, play a game, or learn how to behave. They just let their children do these things. We hand a child a ball to teach him to throw. If he throws poorly, he simply tries again. Parents tolerate sitting in the passenger seat while their teenager tries out the driver's seat for the first time. It's nerve-wracking, but parents put up with it, because they know there's no better way.

Methods

The 50 students of school of Agriculture and Agricultural Technology and department of Agriculture and Environmental Engineering of the Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola who returned from Israel, after spending 11 months on the “Learning by Doing” program were selected. The data were collected using structured questionnaires which were administered to the 50 students’ participants, and Primary Data from the study were analyzed using the descriptive statistics.

The Results and discussion

Personal characteristics of the student participants in the “learning by doing” programme were analyzed. The findings are self-explanatory and are presented in table 1

Table 1           Personal characteristics of respondents;                            (n=50)

Personal characteristics                 Frequency                          Percentage (%)                 

   Sex

Male                                                                36                                            72.00

Female                                                             14                                            28.00

Course of studies

Agricultural economics                                   10                                            20.00

Agricultural engineering                                 5                                              10.00

Animal science                                                7                                              14.00

Crop production                                              7                                              14.00

Fishery                                                            6                                              12.00

Food science and technology                         7                                              14.00

Forestry and wildlife                                      4                                              8.00

Soil science                                                     4                                              8.00    

Age

20-29                                                               41                                            82.0

30-39                                                               3                                              6.0

40-49                                                               1                                              2.0

50 and above                                                   1                                              2.0

Invalid                                                             4                                              8.0

Mean age = 26.7

CGPA

Below 2.4                                                        5                                              10.0

2.4 – 3.49                                                        30                                            60.0

3.5 – 4.49                                                        15                                            30.0

Marital status

Single                                                              45                                            90.00

Married                                                           5                                              10.00

Employment status

Employed                                                        7                                                14.0

Non-employed                                                            43                                              86.0

Analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT), of the cross-border programme.

The result on the analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT), is obtained as a result of unanimous agreement by the respondents, and is shown in table 2 below.

Table 2:          Result of the SWOT Analysis of the programme

Strengths	Weaknesses
·         Practical knowledge was gotten from the programm ·  An award certificate was issued  to student participants ·        Students were exposed to new experiences, a foreign community and an exciting lifestyle ·         Historic Places of interest were visited ·         The students fed well during their stay in Israel ·  Students were  trained by professionals in their various  fields(82% of the students agreed to this) · Friendly environment with hospitable neighborhood(kibbutz shaarhagolan) ·         24 hours  internet services was available for research and pleasure	·         Students’ labor were not efficiently cost ·         Students experienced mixed feeling arising from the change in feeding materials and pattern ·         Students were faced with communication problem(language barrier) ·         The practical aspect of the programme was stressful, especially during the summer ·         The monthly stipends given to the students was hardly enough ·         The information flow at the course of the programme was not free and effective
Opportunities	Threats
·         The programme has made it easier for student participants to get visa, educational and job opportunities in Israel ·         New friends and acquaintances were made by students ·         Hardworking and self-reliant attitude was impacted to the students	·         The self-sponsoring nature and low monetary benefit for the participants of the programme. ·         The limitation of putting into use, the knowledge gotten in Israel back here in Nigeria

The Summary and Conclusions

This study was designed to assess students’ opinion on the “learning by doing” programme they underwent at Israel. Majority of the students were eager to take part in the programme; many consider their experience and time spent in the training as rewarding. They were exposed to a different and more exciting lifestyle and much of what they learned in theory became more real when they themselves practice it. Results from the swot analysis indicates that: To improve on the implementation of the programme, the student participants should be helped by governments and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector, to take care of flight tickets, accommodation and feeding at the course of the programme to sufficiently enable the students to concentrate on the acquisition of the practical knowledge, which is the main aim of the programme.

Solving the problem of skill acquisition by graduates of Nigerian Technical/Vocational Education is a reason for the establishment of SIWES. It was planned to be a bridge between educational institutions and industrial employers with the latter providing general and specific occupational skills and knowledge.

However, if the scheme is not adequately implemented, it becomes difficult for graduates of the system to secure employment in the occupations or make a smooth transition from school to work.

On the other hand, the cross-border learning by doing programme was established in order to tackle the problem of skill acquisition by Nigerian graduates. This research indicates that the “learning by doing” objectives were achieved.

To improve on the programme’s implementation, there is need for greater cooperation and understanding between the various bodies and institutions involved, on how best to implement the cross-border “learning by doing” programme. For effective supervision of the programme, qualified Full-time Coordinators with good public relation skill should be employed by the organizing bodies. This will improve the degree of cooperation between the coordinators and student participants. Finally, in spite of the short-comings attached to the programme, a lot, which may not be seen presently but sometimes in the future, was achieved from the programme.

Acknowledgments

The guidelines presented here have been developed by reading many articles and books about writing, but have mostly been formed through interactions with my mates, whom we were involved in the cross-border program together. In particular, I’d like to thank Dr. Ndaghu Augustine for his guidance throughout the writing process. I’d also like to thank colleagues who provided comments specifically on this draft.

Written by David Grant from thegrandly

References

Benor, D; Harrison, J.O. and M. Baxter, (1984): agricultural extension: The training and visit

            system, Washington , D. C., world bank

Hill, T. & R. Westbrook (1997). "SWOT Analysis: It’s Time for a Product Recall".

            Long Range Planning 30 (1): 46–52.

Information and Guideline for SIWES Review 2002 p 1 – 41.

National Universities commission Handbook, (1997): “Student Industrial Work Experience

            Scheme, Job Specification for Agriculture for All Nigerian Universities.