Graduation pathways of agricultural students who completed in 2014 from selected higher education institutions in Uganda

Abstract

The Agricultural sector continues to be a major employer of Ugandan citizens with an estimated 68.1% of the population engaged in agriculture, forestry and fishing (Uganda National Household Survey [UNHS], 2019/2020). The government of Uganda prioritises the agricultural sector and emphasises agro-industrialisation as the first thematic area in the third national development plan (National Planning Authority [NPA], 2020). The third Uganda national development plan particularly seeks to affirm the dominance of as a source of livelihood leading to the long term aspiration of increasing household incomes and improving the quality of life. Similarly, the East African Community vision 2050 seeks to promote value addition through agro-processing and globally; the sustainable development goals envisage ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture by the year 2030 (United Nations – Sustainable Development Goals [UN-SDGs], 2015). Notably, the national, regional and global aspirations require trained human resources in the agricultural sector for the achievement of the desired targets. However, student enrolment in agricultural subjects is too low to create that critical mass of agricultural specialists in the sector. The total student enrolment in agricultural subjects is estimated at a mere 2577 students out of the 275,254 enrolled in higher education institutions (National Council for Higher Education [NCHE] (State of Higher Education), 2018/2019). Irrespective of the specialised area of training at higher education, graduates ordinarily take employment opportunities from different sectors at the earliest open opportunity.The article, therefore, has the objective of establishing the destinations of students who graduated from agricultural subjects. Precisely the article focuses on the following objectives; establishing the employment status of agricultural graduates from higher education institutions; ascertaining the employment sectors of agricultural graduates in relation to their field of training; establishing incomes ranges of agricultural graduates and determine the additional skills’ set for agricultural graduates to enhance their service delivery.