CHAPTER 1

 INTRODUCTION 

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The current state of the world and Nigeria in particular calls for a paradigm shift in acquiring education just for the purpose of securing white collar jobs to education for acquiring gainful skills capable of ensuring self-reliance through engagement in sustainable production business using the skills learnt in schools. This implies that the approach to Nigerian Education should be geared towards skills and the entrepreneurial education for job creation. The university lecturers as drivers in the university system require sufficient entrepreneurial competencies to be able to transmit same to students who will graduate to be lecturers at the College of Education as no one can give what he or she does not possess. Admassu, Kibebew and Tura (2014) noted rightly that all forms of tertiary education need to be championed towards sustainable production and management, maintaining that this can only be achieved when lecturers at tertiary levels are properly and regularly equipped with necessary entrepreneurial ability for production.

 Indeed, for any education improvement plan to work in the 21^st century, such plan must have to focus on education for doing or education for technology, education for continuous problem solving and in the context of this work, education for sustainable agricultural production to solve the problem of food insecurity and unemployment challenges. Agricultural Education programme in Colleges of Education system in Nigeria seems to have lagged behind in solving the aforementioned problems. This could be evidenced by the skill gap between the production competencies of graduates of Agriculture in Colleges of Education and the requirements of the real world of work that seems to be a gap between the real agricultural work skills of Colleges of

Education graduates in Nigeria and the demands of the labour market in apiculture. The author further maintained that the entrepreneurial competencies possessed by the lecturers in Colleges of Education will also determine the level of skill gap between the world of work and the graduates of Agricultural Education. 

 Agricultural Education is a means of bridging this gap between general education and entrepreneurial competence in food production. The above assertion agrees with the view of Ibe and Uloh (2019) who insinuated that Agricultural Education seeks to inculcate the mindset of food production into teachers, thus combining pedagogical skills with modern technical agricultural skills. There is every need for the agricultural sector to be expanded to include such area as apiculture which seems to have been neglected (Nwankwo, 2017). The author had observed that bee keeping is a neglected area of Agriculture in a developing country like Nigeria. This neglect has led to the perceived level of incompetence demonstrated by many Agricultural education lecturers across different tertiary institutions who are supposed to create awareness for honeybee keeping among the students. Muhammad and Umar (2016) revealed that there is dearth of information on modern methods of bee farming among the academia, public and private agricultural sectors, and the major segments of the societal strata. 

 Furthermore, Nwankwo (2017) recommended that the recognition of bee farming and the improvement of the sector in tertiary institutions could encourage and motivate future and prospective farmers that are already in the business to improve their entrepreneurial competence and could also attract interested individuals and farmers to enter into rearing of bees. If lecturers in higher institutions can be well equipped with the necessary entrepreneurial competencies in specialized and critical areas of Agriculture such as apiculture, graduates can in turn be equipped with skills in apiculture to make a living in this regard as the demand and price of honey bee products are on the rise daily.

Bee is an insect kept for several domestic and economic purposes including the supply of honey and other related products. According to Nwankwo (2017), bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants. Yogi (2012) defined bees as monophyletic linage within the super family “Apoidea”, presently classified by unranked taxon named Anthrophila. Bees can be kept effectively and conveniently in a farmland close to a stream or river at a distance of about 100 – 200 meters away from fertile farmland. They are kept for several reasons notable among which is honey production and pollination of crops. Yogi (2012) opined that bees play significant role in crop farming because four out of the five foods that people eat (fruit, vegetable, oil seeds & pulses) largely depend on bees for their production through pollination. Honey has a high market value due to its many benefits. Ojeleye (2016) identified about eight products of bees as honey, beeswax, pollen, propolis, bee venom, royal jelly, mead and zabrus with each having its values either as food, medicine (apitherapy) or as ingredients for manufactured goods. 

The use of bee and its products through apitherapy and bee venom therapy (BVT) in the treatment of various human ailments and diseases abound in literature (Augustina, 2017). There are several uses and benefits of bee and its products in the treatment of various ailments and diseases. Richardson (2012) observed that fresh raw honey is not only a sweetener, but has many wonderful anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal properties and hence used as a potent healing agent in many parts of the world. Honey, a product of apiculture is therefore an indispensable raw material for pharmaceutical industries. Apart from these products, honey bees contribute immensely to ensuring continued human existence through their activities in the pollination of plants (Augustine, 2017). Food is cheaper in most developed economies due to the intense specialized agricultural system of which honey bees play key roles through colony renting for pollination in farms. In developed economies and places, Anthony (2020) noted that honey bees increase the productivity of both food crops and forest trees and specifically increase the production of water melon by 100%, onions by 94%, citrus fruits by 30%, and tomatoes by 25%. Kaiser and Arnst (2013) noted that bee keeping is commercialized, and that bee renting for pollination is another source of income to farmers.  

Honey is largely composed of sugars which contribute about 95% or more of its dry weight. These are largely simple sugars, namely fructose and glucose, which comprise 85% or more of the sugars. These sugars contribute to the physical and nutritional value of honey. Indeed, the dependence of agricultural activities on honey bee pollination services has increased during the last few decades. In the United States alone, the value of honey bee pollination services is estimated to be between 10 and 14 billion dollars annually (Calderone, 2012). In addition, a variety of honey bee-derived products such as honey, wax and pollen are traded as international commodities (VanEngelsdorp & Meixner, 2010). 

However, despite the critical importance of honey bee as source of food, medicine and crop breeding, the actual history and evolutionary origin of contemporary native and managed populations of honey bees is still somehow unclear as there is no common consensus among available literatures. Meanwhile, the most common specie of bees used for honey production (Apis mellifera) are native only to Africa, Asia and Europe and have been introduced to different parts of the world (Lloyd, 2021). 

The numerous benefits attributed to honey bee has led to keeping honey bees as a farm just like other agricultural crops and animals. Bee farming involves manipulation of bee colony by man based on the scientific knowledge of taping the economic aspects of bee for the purpose of increasing bee rearing for producing honey and other bee products (Augustina, 2017). The process of producing or rearing sting bees is for honey is called apiary or apiculture while the rearing of stingless bee in called meliponiculture. According to Warade (2017), apiculture is a sustainable agricultural practice that can aid the protection of biodiversity and forest ecosystems in developing countries including Nigeria. In agreement with the above, Food and Agricultural

Organization (FAO 2021) noted that improved apicultural practices contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through poverty alleviation, nutrition provision, sustainable harvesting practices, and biodiversity and forest preservation.

  Bee farming can be done by all and sundry including students, lecturers, graduates and retirees. Improving the entrepreneurial competence of lecturers in bee farming will no doubt lead to more graduates partaking in bee farming thereby increasing the supply bee products to serve its numerous needs and create jobs for the graduates who have no other source of livelihood. Bee farming requires little capital and the skills can be acquired by all age bracket. If lecturers are exposed to the skills through workshops and seminars by the experts (wild life management lecturers in the universities, extension officers & bee farmers) they would utilize such skill to equip the students who on graduation will be self-reliant in apiculture. According to Oluwatoni (2011) successful apiculture means knowing and understanding bees and what intervention they will and will not tolerate from the bee farmers. Bee farming is much like any other kind of animal husbandry as it demands regular care, maintenance and time. The only essential difference is that bees are wild creatures. Bee farming is an occupation that combines knowledge of habit and behaviour of bees under certain environmental condition with the efficient manipulation of special equipment by the operator. Bee faming can be practiced as a lucrative source of income for the producer in rural areas and has been successfully implemented in poverty alleviation project (FAO, 2009). Since bee farming can be practiced by both old and young, requires little space, less time and less capital compared to other animal husbandry businesses, young graduates can embark on it to make a living if they are exposed to practical apiculture entrepreneurial competences by the lecturers.

Apiculture as an aspect of agriculture deals with the production and management of honey bees and honeybees products such as honey. (Velmurugan, 2021), beeswax, pollen, propolis, bee venom, royal jelly, apilarniril and apilarniprop, with each having its values either as food, medicine (apitherapy) or as ingredients for manufactured goods (Ojeleye, 2016). It involves manipulation of bee colony by man based on the scientific knowledge for their products (Augustina, 2017). 

  Okeme (2015) noted that the quality of the students and young graduates of agriculture depends greatly on the level of agricultural practical ability possessed by their teachers. In support of the above, Eje (2017) averred that greater number of colleges of education graduates today seem not to fit into the demands of the agricultural world of work due to the incompetency of their teachers in critical practical aspects of agriculture. The author further maintained that if the graduates must be relevant to the current reality of today’s entrepreneurial skill driven society, there will be need for assessment and regular retraining of lecturers in colleges of education in order to improve their entrepreneurial competences as well as their teaching or pedagogical skills.

College of education is a form of tertiary institution that prepares students as future teachers across different disciplines. It a three years formal school program designed to produce teachers with competent pedagogical skills to handle teaching tasks in primary and secondary schools. There are several arts, science and vocational courses studied in Colleges of Education usually core teaching subjects such as English language, mathematics, religion, and agriculture among others. One of the most admired vocational subjects by the students is agricultural education.

This is because, agricultural education is one of the vocational courses that is conceived as less vigorous and students are required to acquire both entrepreneurial skills in agricultural production and the corresponding pedagogical skills to transmit the skills to students through teaching. This implies that agricultural education lecturers should require both pedagogical and practical skills in agriculture (Obunadike & Omeye, 2014).

A lecturer in the opinion of Ibe and Uloh (2019) is someone who is trained in pedagogy and technical areas of his or her subject. Lecturer can be defined in terms of a person who attempts to help someone acquire some well-defined knowledge, skills, attitude, and idea. Okpaga (2019) outlined some qualities known of a lecturer to include being physically fit, confident at all times, committed to his or her job, innovative, self-control and mastery of his or her subject of specialization.

Agricultural Education lecturers are those trained to teach agriculture in tertiary institutions such as college of education. They are educators who teach students how to produce food and conserve natural resources. A lecturer of agriculture can therefore be viewed as a male or female (persons) trained in entrepreneurial skills and corresponding pedagogical skills together with value judgment for impacting same to students in his field of study (Agricultural Education) under a formal school system such as colleges of education. Agricultural lecturers in colleges of education are the major determinants of the entrepreneurial competence possessed by graduates produced from the school. For this reason, they need to teach effectively.

Effective teaching is a function of the pedagogical skills possessed by a given teacher or lecturer. Effective teaching is the process of imparting technical and pedagogical skills to students who acquires the skill for productive living. An effective teacher possesses all the qualities of a teacher as outlined above, adopting unique strategies to enable students assimilate the content being studied. Effective teaching in the context of this study is the ability of Agricultural Education lecturers in colleges of education to competently teach apiculture theoretically and practically to students. For effective teaching to have taken place, the teacher needs to evaluate the students in line with the outlined learning outcomes in order to determine if the objectives has been achieved. A teacher can only be certain that his teaching is effective when feedback on evaluation of the students is very positive. For a teacher to be effective, such teacher must be competent in his area of specialization. Muhammad and Umar (2016) opined that for any teacher to teach apiculture, the teacher must possess sufficient practical ability in bee keeping. This implies that ability to impart entrepreneurial skills in apiculture production to students is an integral part of effective teaching in agriculture by the lecturer.

Entrepreneurship is the ability and readiness to develop, organize and run a business enterprise, along with any of its uncertainties in order to make a profit. Entrepreneurship in the submission of Obunadike (2013), Obunadike and Ogwu-Agu (2018) is developing and managing a business venture in order to make profit by taking several risks in the corporate world. Simply put, entrepreneurship is the willingness to start a new business. The most prominent example of entrepreneurship is starting of new bee farming businesses. Entrepreneurship and beekeeping entrepreneurship are defined as the discovery and evaluation of opportunities_, as well as the creation of new opportunities and possibilities in bee farming. The entrepreneurial vision is defined as discovery and risk-taking and is an indispensable part of a nation’s capacity to

succeed in an ever-changing and more competitive global market place. 

This is in line with the aim of education among which is to produce graduates who will contribute to the development of the nation’s economy. This is also in line with the main objectives of teaching agricultural education which according to Udie, Onah and Amaechi  (2019) include; encouraging the students in the use of their hands, appreciation of the dignity of labour, familiarity with biological processes and thereby instilling rationality into the students, increasing self-sufficiency and self-reliance in food production. 

Beekeeping is one of the best ways to inculcate entrepreneurship in students through effective teaching by lecturers which in turn brings employment creation, resources utilization, income generation and promoting changes in a gradual and peaceful manner. Entrepreneurial competence is therefore, the extent to which one possesses the innovative and technical skills to discover business opportunities in beekeeping, initiate the business and succeed in it for profit maximization. 

Entrepreneurial competence in this study is the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes which agricultural lecturers in Colleges of Education require to implement their task of teaching practical apiculture to students who would utilize the skills for self-reliance. The level of entrepreneurial competence of lecturers is measured by establishing acceptable criteria and standards upon which assessment is compared (Okeme, 2015). Where the lecturers lack the entrepreneurial competence to demonstrate the criteria in the form of standard technical skills in apiculture, the students suffer the consequences. The implication of this is that student graduate from the programme without acquiring the basic competencies that will enable them to either be employable in the world of work or manage personal enterprises in apiculture. It therefore implies that there is need to ensure sufficient entrepreneurial competences of agricultural lecturers in apiculture so that the students will be effectively taught. This can only be achieved through an organized assessment of the level of entrepreneurial competences possessed by these lecturers. This will show if the lecturers need competency improvement in the teaching of apiculture or not. 

Entrepreneurial competency need improvement is the process of ascertaining the level of practical skill possessed by an individual in a specified context. Entrepreneurial competency assessment is the process of determining the rate at which the acceptable procedure for implementing a task is followed. Entrepreneurial competence assessment in this study means ascertaining the level of practical skill in honeybee production possessed by lecturers of agricultural education in colleges of education in South - South Nigeria in order to compare with the competency level needed. This would prove the areas by which the lecturers perform to expectations and the areas which improvement is needed. Ascertaining these areas which improvement is needed is the background upon which this study is emanated. 

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The need for the diversification at the content of Agricultural Education of the Colleges of Education and the increasing market demand for honey justify its inclusion in the agricultural curriculum of tertiary institutions including Colleges of Education in Nigeria. This is in a bid to ensure active involvement of young graduates in apiculture as a source of livelihood and to bridge the demand and supply gap in the bee products market. The role of Agricultural Education programme in Colleges of Education includes the production of graduate who will possess sufficient competencies in championing the course of agricultural production in schools and farms.

        To perform the above role, lecturers at the Colleges of Education should acquire relevant skills in entrepreneurship in different areas of agriculture. Therefore, lecturers of agricultural education ideally need to possess adequate entrepreneurial competencies in relevant areas of agriculture including honeybee production for effective teaching in Colleges of Education in order to reduce the rising unemployment of graduates in Nigeria. This is based on the fact that apiculture has great potentials of employing thousands of graduates who are ready to work and possesses the requisite skills. 

            Despite the inclusion of apiculture in Colleges of Education Agriculture curriculum and the numerous benefits of apiculture, the graduates are deficient in apicultural skills and do not possess the entry level skills to progress in honeybee production. This could be attributed to lack of the practical competencies and experiences of the students on graduation. Besides, the lecturers who trained these graduates among other factors appear not to have sufficient competencies in apiculture production. A face to face interaction with some of the lecturers in the study area revealed that most of them were not taught apiculture during their pre service programmes. The inability of many Colleges of Education agricultural graduates in South-South Nigeria to make gainful living through the opportunities in apiculture despite its inclusion in the curriculum is an evidence that the level of entrepreneurial competence possessed by these lecturers is inadequate which has not been determined, hence creating a research gap. This study tends to bridge this gap by identifying the competency improvement needs of Agricultural Education Lecturers for effective teaching of apiculture in Colleges of Education in South-South

Nigeria.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The main purpose of the study is to determine the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers for effective teaching of apiculture in Colleges of Education in South-South, Nigeria.  Specifically, the study sought to:

1.     identify the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in planning for apiculture establishment,

2.     determine the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in honeybee hive construction, 

3.     find out the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in stocking of the bee hive, 

4.     ascertain the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in feeding of the breeding species, 

5.     determine the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in disease and pest control, 

6.     find out the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in bee product harvesting,  

7.     determine the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in bee product processing and

8.     ascertain the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in marketing of honey bee products.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is hoped that the result of this study would be of immense benefit to the lecturers, students, Agricultural Education researchers, crop farmers, pharmaceutical industries, government, school evaluators and the entire society who utilize honey for diverse purposes.

The lecturers of Agricultural Education at Colleges of Education would find the result of this study helpful. Evidence from several literatures has revealed that many lecturers of agriculture do not possess the needed competencies in honeybee production even when they are required to teach apiculture in schools. This has become a great challenge to the lecturers in discharging their teaching effectively. When the result of this study is made known to the lecturers, they would understand their major weakness in the process of honeybee production for remediation for the benefit of the students.

The result of the study would also be of immense benefit to agricultural education students who are taught by the lecturers. Hardly can any graduate of agriculture in College of Education boast of possessing sufficient apiculture skills. Few that possess the skills can hardly attribute it to their training institutions or teachers rather to non-formal skill acquisition centers where they register and pay to acquire apiculture skills despite having passed through a school curriculum containing the learning experiences. With the result of this study made known to the lecturers who utilize them to teach the students, the students would be properly equipped with the ability to competently produce honey and make a living.

Researchers in the field of agriculture would also find the result of this study worthy as they would utilize the result in related studies. They would also utilize the findings in making effective conclusion and recommendations to appropriate bodies to implement for schools to adopt in retraining their teachers for effective teaching.

Government at all levels would benefit from the result of this study. The findings would assist government develop training manual to train out of school youths in sustainable honey production for self-reliant. Government through the Ministry of Education would also utilize the findings in developing apiculture curriculum for schools to utilize in teaching students. 

The result of the study would be of great benefit to school evaluation team. The result on the assessment of lecturers’ quality in apiculture for effective teaching when made know to school and program evaluators would assist them with data on the efficiency of their employees. This would consequently assist them in making further decision as to whether there would be need for retraining programs or not.

Crop farmers would also benefit from this study. When the findings are utilized by the lecturers and students to increase the number of bee farms, there would be more bees to assist in the pollination of crops hence improving crop yield and the farmer’s income.

Pharmaceutical industries who utilize honey as a raw material for production of various drugs would find the result of this study beneficial. When the result is made known to lecturers and their competency in apiculture is improved, the students would acquire the skills which would lead to more honey production. The pharmaceutical industries would therefore have more raw materials to produce drugs.

The entire society who utilizes honey for diverse purposes such as domestic consumption, industrial and medicinal purposes would as well benefit from the result of this study. If the lecturers acquire the skills and transmit same to students, the students would graduate to begin commercial production of honey thereby increasing the supply of honey to markets. This would probably reduce the cost of honey as witnessed today due to low supply amidst increasing demands. 

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions were posed to guide the study:

1.     What are the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in planning apiculture establishment for effective teaching in Colleges of Education?

2.     What are the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in honeybee hive construction for effective teaching?

3.     What are the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in stocking of bee hive for effective teaching?

4.     What are the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in feeding of the breeding species for effective teaching?

5.     What are the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in pest and disease control for effective teaching?

6.     What are the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in bee product harvesting for effective teaching?

7.     What are the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in bee product processing for effective teaching?

8.     What are the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in marketing of honey bee products for effective teaching?

1.6 HYPOTHESES

The following null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance.

1.     There is no significant difference between the mean responses of agricultural education lecturers and wildlife management lecturers on the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in planning apiculture

establishment for effective teaching, 

2.     Significance difference does not exist between the mean responses of agricultural education lecturers and wildlife management lecturers on the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in honeybee hive construction for effective teaching, 

3.     There is no significant difference between the mean responses of agricultural education lecturers and wildlife management lecturers on the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in stocking of bee hive for effective teaching, 

4.     There is no significant difference between the mean responses of agricultural education lecturers and wildlife management lecturers on the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in feeding of the breeding species for effective teaching, 

5.     There is no significant difference between the mean responses of agricultural education lecturers and wildlife management lecturers on the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in disease and pest control for effective teaching, 

6.     There is no significant difference between the mean responses of agricultural education lecturers and wildlife management lecturers on the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in bee product harvesting for effective teaching, 

7.     There is no significant difference between the mean responses of agricultural education lecturers and wildlife management lecturers on the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in bee product processing for effective teaching and

8.     There is no significant difference between the mean responses of agricultural education lecturers and wildlife management lecturers on the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of agricultural education lecturers in marketing of honey bee products for effective teaching 

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study was delimited to assessing the entrepreneurial competency improvement needs of

Agricultural Education lecturers in apiculture for effective teaching in Colleges of Education in South- South States of Nigeria. The scope of the study was delimited to all the activities in practical honeybee production for effective teaching by lecturers of Agricultural Education in Colleges of Education. Such management processes as honeybee production planning, beehive construction, stocking of the hive, feeding of breeding species, pest and disease control, bee product harvesting, product processing and marketing of the products. 

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