SELECTED UNIVERSITIES AGRICULTURAL EXPERTS’ VIEW ON THE ADOPTION OF SOILLESS MEDIUM AS AGRICULTURAL STRATEGY FOR STEMMING URBAN YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The problem of hunger and poverty in urban areas due to inadequate land for agricultural practices and unemployment among youths may be partially solved if the practice of soilless agriculture or farming is adopted in Nigerian urban areas. This study sought to obtain experts' views on the possibility or practicability of using soilless agriculture to curb urban-youth unemployment problem. Four research questions and corresponding hypotheses guided the study. The study is a descriptive survey research method adopting questionnaire as research instrument to obtain the opinions of agricultural experts. The population and respondents for the study were drawn from lecturers and researchers in the faculty of agriculture in three universities in Nigeria. The sample for the study consisted of thirty-two lecturers from various departments in the faculty of agriculture from which twenty-two were completed the questionnaire items successfully. Descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics of t-test were used for data analysis. Findings from the study indicated that the experts opined that soilless agriculture could be used to solve urban-youth unemployment problem although it could not be used massively. Also, the constraining problems to the use of soilless agriculture to tackle youth unemployment were identified. It was therefore recommended that governments and NGOs should procure equipment for distribution to youths who have love for soilless farming among others.