Determinants of entrepreneurial alertness: towards sustainable agribusiness development

PurposeEntrepreneurship is known to be important to the economy, and many scholars across the globe have researched it from a number of viewpoints. Currently, there is a need for an academic study to explore this area by combining sustainability value creating practices and the efforts of current entrepreneurs towards the said target, particularly in the case of the agricultural sector. While the entrepreneurship studies have mostly focused on the determinants of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, few studies have attempted to analyze the factors influencing the entrepreneurial alertness (EA) of students, especially in relation to agricultural students. To fill this gap, this work investigated the impact of human and social capital on EA among the students of agricultural higher education in Iran.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consisted of 254 agricultural students in higher education from Ilam province in the Islamic Republic of Iran, selected by the stratified random sampling method for the study. Modeling of structural equations was used in inferential statistics.FindingsAccording to the results of the trial, human resources and social capital (SC) have been seen to have a strong, optimistic and measurable impact on EA. Key findings also show that human capital (HC) has an indirect, optimistic and important effect on EA through the mediator role of SC. Establishing higher education science teams, groups, networks and associations can foster opportunities to create and develop relationships and communication between agricultural students and entrepreneurs.Originality/valueThese findings illustrate the value of human and social resources in fostering entrepreneurship alertness among Iranian students of agricultural higher education. Considering the research results, the authors recommend some theoretical and realistic implications and suggestions for ways of promoting and increasing EA among farm students to encourage sustainable growth of agricultural careers in western Iran.

Preparedness for paid- and self-employment: perceptions amongst Ekiti State University agricultural students, Nigeria

PurposeGraduate unemployment in agriculture is a serious challenge in Nigeria. Literatures suggest two arguments explaining this. First, the skills possessed by graduates are mostly incompatible with the needs of industries; second, universities produce more graduates than required. Focussing on universities as the source of change to address these two arguments, the purpose of the study was to examine the case of Ekiti State University agricultural faculty. The study investigated students' perspectives regarding their motivations for choosing agriculture over other disciplines, training received in critical thinking, innovation and soft-skills and their courage and willingness to undertake self-employment upon graduation.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a qualitative research design to collect and analyse data from a case study. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews with 42 respondents from amongst the Ekiti State University final year B. Agric agricultural students that totalled 108. Seven of the respondents were purposively selected following recommendations from their lecturers due to their bright academic performances. Others were chosen using convenience sampling.FindingsThe study found that students preferred other science disciplines to agriculture and only ended up studying agriculture out of frustration of not gaining admission into their preferred fields. Students generally denied ever undertaking any training in critical and soft skills either as courses on their own or through the teaching methods adopted in other courses. Respondents generally expressed willingness to undertake self-employment but expressed lack of confidence to do so solely based on their little practical exposure and lack of access to basic resources like finance and land.Research limitations/implicationsOnly agricultural students of Ekiti State University were sampled; hence, the results is not generalisable to other disciplines in the university or to all Universities in Nigeria. Convenience sampling was used because access to all members of the sampled population at the same time was not possible due to different timetables for lectures for the various disciplines and non-readiness of some students to be interviewed for lack of interest or for commitment to other engagements.Practical implicationsThe study practically implied that the theoretical training offered to agricultural students of Ekiti State University needs to be balanced with practical exposure, such that students gain enough confidence to practice what they have learnt upon graduation to earn a living.Social implicationsThe study revealed that there is need for curriculum review for agricultural studies at Ekiti State University in a way that will accommodate relevant practical trainings for students to make them suitable for either hired employment or self-employment upon graduation.Originality/valueThe author hereby declares that this manuscript is the author's own work and it contains, to the best of the author's knowledge, no materials previously published or written by another person. The author has no idea of an in-depth study of this nature that has been done to analyse the gap between the training received by agricultural students in Universities and the skills required to make them capable for hired employment or self-employment upon graduation from universities.

Cultural Differences in Critical Thinking Style: A Comparison of U. S. and Chinese Undergraduate Agricultural Students

This study aimed to compare critical thinking styles between students studying agriculture in the U.S. and China. A survey of critical thinking styles was administered to two groups of students in U.S. (n = 104) and China (n = 103). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was applied to determine if there were significant differences in critical thinking styles between the two groups. Results indicate that U.S. students tended to prefer an engaging critical thinking style, whereas Chinese students tended to prefer an information seeking critical thinking style. These differences between critical thinking style preferences may be explained by students’ cultural backgrounds. This study can help agricultural educators understand the differences in critical thinking style preferences among culturally-diverse students. Further, it provides empirical evidence to guide agricultural educators seeking to adopt effective pedagogical approaches to cultivate critical thinking among students from diverse cultural backgrounds. This study provides fresh insight into the individualism and collectivism theory by explaining the cross-cultural differences in critical thinking style between U.S. and Chinese agricultural students. Keywords: agricultural education, critical thinking style, international agricultural student, cross- cultural

The Influence of Virtual Reality Technology on the Cultivation of Agricultural Students

Virtual reality learning environment is a virtual learning environment created by the use of virtual reality technology, which expands the physical learning environment and provides learners with richer learning experience and learning resources. It has the characteristics of immersion, interaction, and imagination. From these three characteristics, this paper studies the virtual reality learning environment to promote the deeper learning of agricultural students, immersion teaching provides experience support for agricultural students' deeper learning, interaction provides emotional support for agricultural students' deeper learning, and imagination provides situational support for agricultural students' deeper learning. The virtual reality technology is helpful to the cultivation of higher-order thinking of agricultural talents. It is expected to provide a reference for the future exploration of virtual reality technology to the cultivation of agricultural talents.

How (un-)informative are experiments with “standard subjects” for other social groups? – The case of agricultural students and farmers

This paper analyzes whether there is a gap between agricultural students’ and non-students’ (farmers’) behaviors in economic experiments which are often used to measure risk aversion, impatience, positive reciprocity, negative reciprocity, altruism, and trust. A further question is whether monetary incentives matter in this respect. We use the Holt and Laury procedure (2002) to elicit risk aversion, the procedure according to Laury et al. (2012) to measure impatience, a gift exchange game (Charness et al. 2004) to capture positive reciprocity, an ultimatum bargaining game (Güth et al. 1982) to assess negative reciprocity, a dictator experiment (Engel 2011) to gauge altruism, and a trust game (Kosfeld et al. 2005) to assess trust in others. We find no differences between agricultural students and farmers in their risk aversion, whereas the latter are fund to be considerably more impatient than the former. Positive and negative reciprocity is slightly more pronounced with farmers. Findings regarding altruism in the two groups are mixed and trust is somewhat more pronounced with farmers. The paper challenges approaches that assume that students can be used as standard experimental subjects whose behaviors can be generalized towards other populations.

Occupational Aspiration of Undergraduate Agricultural Students of Kerala Agricultural University- A Multidimensional Analysis

The study titled ‘Occupational aspiration of undergraduate agricultural students of Kerala Agricultural University- A multidimensional analysis’ was undertaken during 2017 - 19. The objectives of the study was to study and compare the occupational aspirations of the male and female undergraduate students of agriculture and also to categorise and compare the male and female undergraduate agricultural students based on the level of occupational aspiration. The study analyses both idealistic and realistic occupational aspirations of the undergraduate agricultural students by considering the concept of long and short range for goal period expression. The study also categorises the students based on their level of occupational aspiration by following the procedure adopted by National Opinion Research Centre (NORC) and Ajit [1] in developing level of aspiration scale. The occupational prestige rating scale establishes level of occupational prestige as viewed in India as well as determines the weighted score for each of the occupation. The sample of the study comprised of 120 third year and final year students i.e., 60 students from College of Agriculture (COA), Vellayani, 35 students from College of Horticulture (COH), Vellanikkara and 25 students from College of Agriculture (COAP), Padannakkad were selected based on proportionate random sampling method. The results on occupational aspiration of the students revealed that more than half (56.65%) of the undergraduate students in agriculture belonged to the category of high level of occupational aspiration. Getting the state/ central government job (67.5%) and entering into administrative sector jobs through PSC’s (48.3%) were the realistic occupational aspirations of majority of the students. Becoming Agricultural scientist in central/ state government (45.85%) and cracking civil services (36.66%) were the idealistic occupational aspirations of the majority of the students. It was also observed that irrespective of the gender and college of study, the students’ level of occupational aspirations remained same.

Career Aptitude Assessment of the Undergraduate Agricultural Students in Kerala Agricultural University

The study entitled ‘Career aptitude assessment of the undergraduate agricultural students in Kerala Agricultural University’ was undertaken with 120 undergraduate agricultural students of the three colleges under Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) during 2018-19. Ex post facto research design was used for conducting the study and sample of the study comprised of 120 third year and final year students i.e., 60 students from COA, Vellayani, 35 students from COH, Vellanikkara and 25 students from COAP, Padannakkad were selected based on proportionate random sampling method. The results of the study revealed that majority of the undergraduate agricultural students had medium to high mechanical reasoning, language usage capability and numerical ability. Almost 71.68 per cent of the undergraduate agricultural students had high verbal reasoning ability and majority (78%) of the students had medium to low word knowledge. It was also observed that majority (95%) of the undergraduate agricultural students had medium to high career aptitude. These results indicated that undergraduate agriculture students have the desired skills to succeed in plethora of jobs i.e., from low profile jobs to high profile administrative and management jobs. Further, Man – Whitney test had been undertaken to test the significant difference between career aptitude of male and female students. The results revealed that regardless of their gender the career aptitude of the male and female students remained same. From this study it is evident that undergraduate students of KAU are suitable for wide range of occupations / vocations / careers from farming to agribusiness, from clerical job to the high profile administrative jobs, from farmer to the management professional, from private jobs to the government job, from extension agent to the agricultural scientist and so on.

Information and Communication Technologies Usage among Agricultural Students of Tertiary Institutions in Southwest of Nigeria

The study examined information and communication technologies usage among agricultural students of tertiary institution in Southwest of Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 300 agricultural students from tertiary institutions. Structured questionnaire was employed to elicit information on students’ socioeconomic characteristics, availability of ICTs, accessibility and purposes of ICTs usage. Data were subjected to percentage, chi-square, the Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the Analysis of variance at p=0.05. Findings revealed that the most available ICTs among students were internet and mobile phone (95.0%) respectivelywhile they had access to mobile phone (Weighted Mean (WM)=0.58) and radio (WM=0.51), they used ICTs for information (WM=0.77), academics (WM=0.70) and entertainment (WM=0.70) purposes; with high level of availability (71.0%), access (56.7%) and ICTs usage purpose (51.3%) respectively. There were significant relationships between respondents’ monthly stipend (r=0.200), state of institution (χ2=8.000), religion (χ2=222.660), marital status (χ2=211.680), category of students’ programme (χ2= 320.4608), type of institution (χ2=56.000) and their purposes for using ICTs but with a significant difference across the states (F=23.821; p=0.00). Students used ICTs for information, academic and entertainment purposes based on their age and type of their institutions. Since ICTs are used for beneficial purposes, it is recommended that ICTs should be adapted, applied and incorporated into tertiary institutions’ curricula across the nation. Keywords: ICTs usage, undergraduate students, entertainment purposes, mobile phone, tertiary institutions.

Rethinking how risk aversion and impatience are linked with cognitive ability: Experimental findings from agricultural students and farmers

Dohmen et al. (2010) describe in their paper, which has been published in the American Economic Review, that risk aversion and impatience are negatively related to cognitive ability. This topic is important because controlling for cognitive ability might be necessary if someone is interested in the link of risk preferences or time preferences to real-world outcomes. We re-examine their key results by conducting an experimental study using two subject pools (agricultural students and farmers) and three levels of monetary incentives. Similar to Dohmen et al. (2010), our study finds the above-described negative correlations. However, the strength of the association is smaller and the p-values are quite large.