CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background to the study

The global community has been relentless in its effort at furthering the course of humanity in all

dimensions, especially in the aspect of efficient resource management to ensure progress in the

improvement of conditions of living since the whole essence of natural endowment and technical

advancement of any kind is towards human satisfaction or values. Paradoxically, human beings,

being the end beneficiaries of the values that accrue from efficient human resource management

are also part and parcel of the resources to be managed since they constitute initiators and

participants in the feat of development or progress that engenders the necessary values.

However, there is no part of the global community that has been able to engage its entire people

that are willing to work (participate in the process of development). This is to say that

unemployment is sparsely present in all countries of the world. Despite falling unemployment

levels in developed economies like Europe (7.1 percent in 2014 to 6.7 percent in 2015), global

job crisis is not likely to end, especially in emerging economies in view of the continuous high

rates of unemployment World Wide as well as chronic vulnerability of employment in many

developing economies (ILO,2016). The final figure for global unemployment in 2015 was

estimated to stand at 197.1 million to reach 199.4 million as well as 1.1 million likely to be

added in 2017 (ILO, 2016). The significant slowdown in emerging economies coupled with a

sharp decline in commodity prices is having a dramatic effect on the world of employment

(Ryder, 2016); many working women and men are having to accept low paid jobs both in

emerging and developing economies and also, increasingly in developed countries, and despite a

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drop in the number of unemployed people in EU countries and the U.S.A, too many people are

still jobless (Ryder, 2016).

The foregoing is not unconnected to the fact that agricultural potentials have not been fully

exploited across the globe; the sector account for a comparatively small share of the global

economy, but remains central to the lives of a great number of people. In 2002, of the world’s 7.1

billion people, an estimated 1.3 billion (19 percent) were directly engaged in farming, but

agriculture (including the relatively small hunting fishing and forestry sectors) represented just

2.8 percent of overall income (World