ABSTRACT

The study focused on identifying the skills required by youths for commercial goat production in Akwa Ibom State. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The study was carried out in Akwa Ibom State. Six (6) research questions were answered and six (6) hypotheses were tested in the study. The population of the study was 427 consisting of 296 registered goat farmers and 131 extension agents from the six agricultural zones of Akwa Ibom State. The entire population constituted the sample because of the manageable size.  A sixty-seven (67) items structured questionnaire was developed from the literature and goat production industries and used for data collection. The questionnaire had a 4-point response options. The instrument was validated by three Validates, two from Agricultural and Home Science Education and one from Educational Management of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike.  Test retest method of reliability and Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to obtain a reliability index of 0.87. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for answering research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses. The result of the study revealed that skills required by youths for commercial goat production were 12 skills in planning, 12 skills in site preparation and housing, 10 skills in feeding, 11 skills in breeding, 12 skills in health management and 10 skills in marketing of goat produce. Based on the findings, it is recommended among others that the identified skills should be incorporated into the curriculum of the Skill Acquisition Centres and training institutes to train youths and that government should provide an enabling environment, soft loans or grants for youths to embark on commercial goat production in Akwa Ibom State.