Journal of Agricultural Science and Practice

Assessment of the youthful contributions to the Nigerian GDP has suffered considerable neglect hence, this study sets out to analyse how the Graduate Entrepreneurial Fund (GEF) scheme impacted income level among agricultural participants, using a multi-staged sampling procedure to randomly select 138 respondents, and analysed with; Descriptive statistics, and Propensity score matching. Analytical findings revealed that the graduate farmers who participated in the GEF programme were around the prime-productive age of about 30 years, while the majority of the participants were unmarried, in households constituting of at least 6 persons, but the majority are not Agricultural study backgrounds, and graduated at least four years ago from tertiary institutions, while primarily engaged in agriculture, unlike their non-beneficiary counterparts. The results further showed a significant impact of the GEF programme on income among participants, with the monthly income from GEF programme Agricultural participants exceeding that of the nonparticipants by about 43.2%, showing that the GEF scheme favourably positioned the income earning capacity among the scheme participants. In comparison, it will require about 76.1% monthly income shift on average for a nonparticipant to bridge the existing income gaps. Hence, more youth-oriented agricultural empowerment should be prioritised towards boosting the earning potentials of unemployed youths in the country. This, aside from income earning promotion among them, will consequently boost local food market supply towards tackling food shortages linked- multidimensional poverty, while enhancing favourable foreign trade balance via increased exportation in the various Agro sub-sectors, given her resource abundance yet untapped.