Knowledge and motivation toward adoption of agropreneur among Faculty of Plantation and Agrotechnology (FPA) students in UiTM Jasin / Muhammad Amirullah Shamsui

Agriculture is undergoing a major transformation in this country towards a more dynamic and competitive sector. This sector is critical in the sense that it contributes not only to economic growth, but can also contribute to job creation. Malaysia is still facing the shortage of educated young in the agricultural labour force and the number of educated young is still far below on what has been targeted as in the 9th Malaysian Plan. Similarly, from the perspective of graduate entrepreneur, in 2010, there are only about 5.5% out of 87,886 fresh graduates from all Malaysian higher education institutes involved in entrepreneur activities. Problem arises can be solve by identifying factors affecting knowledge and motivation toward adopting of agropreneur among Faculty of Plantation and Agrotechnology (FPA) students in UiTM Jasin. Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) campus Jasin, Malacca has been chosen to conduct the survey due to its location and condition fit the problem arises with the 1696 of total population made the respondent targeted is about 313 sample based on Krejcie and Morgan table. Entrepreneurship education has been recognized as playing an important role in promoting entrepreneurial knowledge and assisting entrepreneurial citizens to further develop. Thus, education in agropreneur can help to increase entrepreneurial motivation and enhance agro-entrepreneurial knowledge. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the level of agropreneurship education on Faculty of Plantation and Agrotechnology (FPA) students‘entrepreneurial knowledge and motivation. The results show that agropreneurship education provided by local higher education institutions is sufficient to help develop the entrepreneurial skills and knowledge of students. The results also showed that the motivation of agricultural graduates to become agropreneurs is significantly influenced by proactive motivated and knowledge in agropreneurship. The findings contribute to the educational providers in practical and managerial terms in helping them design a well-directed curriculum course that can foster the development of agropreneurial skills and competencies among graduates of agriculture.