Perceptions and perspectives of tertiary students on Liberia's agribusiness sector

This article assesses Liberian tertiary students' perception and perspectives on Liberia's agribusiness sector; the assessment was conducted across nine universities in six counties and targeted young people aged 15-35 as principal respondents. The research employed a survey with a sample size of 1,701 university students. Overall, tertiary students had a positive perspective of the agribusiness sector. Specifically, young people perceived agribusiness to be profitable and a viable venture to engage in (with a median of 2.57 of a perception scale of 1(least profitable) to 3 (most profitable)). Even though young people in Liberia had a positive perspective of the agribusiness sector (with a median of 3.80 of a perception scale of 1(strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree)), they agreed that young people in Liberia faced many constraints to their involvement in agribusiness (with a median of 4 of a perception scale of 1(strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). The concept of agribusiness was not well ingrained in the minds of young people in Liberia as they largely perceived agribusiness to be mainly farming. There should be education on agribusiness, where the input, production (farming), processing, distribution and agri-support sectors are holistically referred to as agribusiness. The paper assessed the understanding and viewpoints of students regarding the agricultural business sector in Liberia. The assessment was conducted in nine universities in six counties among 1,701 young students between the ages of 15 and 35. Most of the young people saw agricultural business to be mostly farming. Therefore, efforts should be made to expand understanding of the sector, including input, production, processing through distribution and consumption. Generally, the students had favourable opinions of the sector. They believed agriculture to be lucrative and a worthwhile endeavour. Despite this favourable opinion, they concurred that numerous barriers were preventing young people from being involved in the sector. They also showed a preference for white-collar employment over agricultural business. The assessment was part of a research that evaluated the status of youth engagement in agribusiness in Liberia. The European Union funded the research under the Talking Agribusiness in Liberia project [ https://cerathdev.org/talking-agribusiness-project/ ].