BEST PRACTICES NEEDED BY SECONDARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE GRADUATES IN OIL PALM (ELIASE GUINEANSIS)PRODUCTION FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

This research was conducted in Cross River State of Nigeria to determine the best practices needed by secondary school agricultural science graduates in oil palm (eliaseguineansis) production for national development. The research adopted a survey design. Four specific purposes of the study guided the work with four corresponding research questions. The population of the study was 499 agricultural science teachers and students. The sample for the study was 260 made up of 60 teachers and 200 students drawn from 12 secondary schools in Boki L.G.A. of Cross River State.  The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire developed by the researchers. The instrument was validated by 5 experts. Three experts in agricultural education and two experts in measurement and evaluation from the University of Calabar. The reliability of the instrument was determined by the adoption of Cronbach Alpha statistics which yielded the reliability coefficient of 0.901. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The findings of the study revealed that the secondary school agricultural science graduatesrequire9 best practices in pre-planting operations, 7 planting operation, 9 post-planting operations and 8 harvesting operations in oil palm production. Based on the finding of the research, the researchers recommended among others that for Nigeria to compete with other countries like Malaysia and Indonasia, the country must return to effective agricultural production and students should visit well established oil palm plantation in their environment to acquire the best practices skills in oil palm production.