STRATEGIES FOR CREATING AND MAINTAINING PARTNERSHIPS IN AGRI-BUSINESS FOR NATIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Strengthening agribusiness linkages is vital for agribusiness development. Successfulpartnerships with stakeholders will add value to agric sector thereby creating employment and increasing income levels of farmers. The study is aimed at determining the strategies for creating and maintaining partnership in agri-business for national economic development. To achieve the purpose of the study, two research questions were developed and answered by the study and two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The sample for the study is 90. A 33- item structured questionnaire was developed and used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts and internal consistency of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient. A reliability coefficient of 0.75 was obtained. The data collected were analyzed using mean and analysis of variance (ANOVA) for hypotheses. The study found out fifteen strategies on how to create partnership in Agribusiness and eighteen strategies on how to maintain partnership in Agribusiness. Based on the findings from the study, it was recommended that government should train farmers on how to create and maintain partnership in agribusiness among others.