Influence of students’ participation in young farmers’ clubs on performance in and attitude towards agriculture in secondary schools in Suba Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Kenya’s economic growth is primarily driven by agriculture. Setting up Young Farmers’ Clubs (YFCs) in secondary schools is one way of attracting young people in agriculture as well as developing their production skills. The level of participation in YFCs is likely to influence the students’ performance as well as their attitude towards agriculture. The purpose of this research was to ascertain how students’ involvement in Young Famqers’ Clubs influence their performance in agriculture and attitude towards the subject in secondary schools in Suba Sub-County. The research employed cross-sectional survey design targeting 628 Form Three students taking agriculture in public secondary schools in Suba Sub-County. The data was collected from an accessible population of 286 Fonn Three agriculture students who are also members of Young Fanners’ Clubs in 37 public secondary schools in Suba. A sample size of 126 respondents was obtained through stratified random sampling. Nassiuma, (2000) formula was applied to obtain the sample size. Respondents were allocated across the strata according to school categories i.e.; one national school, two extra county schools, two county schools and three sub- county schools giving a total of eight schools. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires. The instrurnent’s validity was assessed by specialists in agricultural education and extension from Egerton University. Reliability was established through a pilot testing involving 30 agriculture students in five secondary schools in neighbouring Nyatike Sub-County. Cronbach alpha coefficient was used to assess the instrument’s reliability where a coefficient of 0.817 was computed and taken as satisfactory. SPSS version 25 was used for data cleaning, coding and analysis. The hypotheses were examined at 5% significance level using ordered logistic regression analysis. This study found that Young Farmers’ Clubs are accorded with key school facilities such as farm and access to the library. Young Farmers’ Clubs perform a variety of activities, ranging from crop production (e.g. vegetable growing and tree planting) to livestock keeping (e.g. rearing of cattle and sheep).The study findings revealed that students’ perfonnance and attitude towards agriculture are positively influenced by participation in Young Farmers’ Clubs. This study recommends that students’ participation in Young Fanners’ Clubs activities could be encouraged in all secondary schools as a way of augmenting students’ perfonnance in agriculture and improving their attitude towards the subject. This can be done by providing adequate time for YFC’s activities. In addition, the necessary facilities should be made available so that their involvement is worthwhile.