Abstract

The study was carried out to develop a training programme in cocoyam production for enhancing job opportunities of youth in South Eastern Nigeria. The study adopted research and development (R & D) design. The study was carried out in the South-East states of Nigeria, namely Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states. The population of the study was 5075 made up 21 lecturers, 292 extension agents and 4510 registered cocoyam farmers all from South-East Nigeria. The sample for the study was 763 made up of 21 lecturers of agricultural education in universities, 292 extension agents and 451 registered cocoyam farmers, all from South-East Nigeria. The entire populations of lecturers and extension agents were studied while proportionate random sampling techniques were used to pick 10% of registered farmers .Three sets of questionnaire were developed from the literature reviewed by the researcher and utilized to obtain data from the respondents. The three sets of questionnaire were face validated by three (3) experts. Cronbach alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire items and an overall reliability coefficient of 0.95 was obtained. Ten assistants helped the researcher to administer the questionnaire to three groups of respondents. Data collected were analyzed using weighted mean to answer the research questions while ANOVA statistic was used to test hypotheses one to four and ttest for hypothesis five; all at the probability of 0.05 and appropriate degrees of freedom. The study found out that three clusters with 10 corresponding items (4 in growing, 3 in processing and 3 in marketing enterprises) were relevant as the objectives of cocoyam training programme. Six clusters with 60 corresponding competency items and 18 materials were required as the content of cocoyam training programme. Three cluster items with their 43 corresponding item and 14 materials were required for training the youth in cocoyam production. Three clusters with their corresponding 36 items on the procedure to be adopted in training youths in cocoyam production were identified as required. Five items were required as the procedure for packaging developed production programme. The study also found out that there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of the respondents on the hypotheses tested. The study recommended that the packaged programme should be utilized in training youth in any of the cocoyam enterprises to enhance their job opportunities.