Summary The study analysed the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of inclusive extension service among agricultural extension workers in southwestern Nigeria. All the extension workers (268) in ...Agricultural Development Programmes (ADPs) in five states randomly selected within southwestern Nigeria were interviewed for the study via a structured and pre-tested questionnaire. The collected data were presented using descriptive and inferential statistics. The mean age, formal education and job experience of the extension workers were 43.3±8.4, 17.0±2.6 and 14.1±8.4 years, respectively. The majority of the respondents were male (74.3%) and married (77.8%). Furthermore, most of them have encountered farmers with special needs such as albinism (81.7%), hearing impairment (87.3%), visual impairment (85.2%) and mental disability (81.7%) among others. The majority of the respondents (60.0%) had high capacity for inclusive extension service. The extension workers differed significantly across the states in terms of their practice scores, but not in their knowledge and attitude scores. The findings revealed that at p<0.05, job experience (r= 0.483) and age (r=0.322) of the respondents had significant relationship with KAP of inclusive extension service. Therefore, the hypothesis was accepted for sex and marital status, but was rejected for ethnicity, age and job experience. The study concludes that the extension workers differ significantly across the states in terms of practices, but not in their knowledge and attitude about inclusive extension services.
This study examined strengths, weakness, opportunities and threat within the extension service delivery in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The total population (130) of extension agents was used for the ...study. A structured questionnaire and focus group discussion schedule were used to elicit information. Percentages, mean were used to analyse the data collected. The findings showed Insecurity, high farmer-to-extension agent ratio and inadequate training facilities as challenging factors that affect extension service delivery. The study concluded that extension service delivery was highly ineffective because of low extension-farmer ratio and low motivation among the agents. It is recommended that government need to employ more extension agents to reduce the possible imbalance in extension service delivery to farmers.
This study examined strengths, weakness, opportunities and threat within the extension service delivery in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The total population (130) of extension agents was used for the ...study. A structured questionnaire and focus group discussion schedule were used to elicit information. Percentages, mean were used to analyse the data collected. The findings showed Insecurity, high farmer-to-extension agent ratio and inadequate training facilities as challenging factors that affect extension service delivery. The study concluded that extension service delivery was highly ineffective because of low extension-farmer ratio and low motivation among the agents. It is recommended that government need to employ more extension agents to reduce the possible imbalance in extension service delivery to farmers.
This study examined strengths, weakness, opportunities and threat within the extension service delivery in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The total population (130) of extension agents was used for the ...study. A structured questionnaire and focus group discussion schedule were used to elicit information. Percentages, mean were used to analyse the data collected. The findings showed Insecurity, high farmer-to-extension agent ratio and inadequate training facilities as challenging factors that affect extension service delivery. The study concluded that extension service delivery was highly ineffective because of low extension-farmer ratio and low motivation among the agents. It is recommended that government need to employ more extension agents to reduce the possible imbalance in extension service delivery to farmers.
This study examined strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within the extensionservice delivery in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The total population (130) of extension agents was used for the ...study. A structured questionnaire and focus group discussion schedule were used to elicit information. Percentages, and mean were used to analyse the data collected. The findings showed Insecurity, high farmer-to-extension agent ratio and inadequate training facilities as challenging factors that affect extension service delivery. The study concluded that extension service delivery was highly ineffective because of the low extension-farmer ratioand low motivation among the agents. It is recommended that the government employ more extension agents to reduce the possible imbalance in extension service delivery to farmers.
Developing countries have recognised the need to strengthen their agricultural extension services as an engine for improving productivity, reaching marginalised, poor and female farmers and ...addressing new challenges, such as environmental degradation and climate change. However, structuring effective and viable extension systems remains a major challenge in most places. This paper studies the Plantwise extension programme in Kenya, an initiative that supports and increases collaboration among actors in the national plant health system, establishes and maintains a network of plant clinics - a physical interface between farmers and crop protection experts - to address the needs of smallholders, and collects key information in the process that can be used for informing policy and for monitoring and evaluation purposes. To assess the programme in Kenya, we conducted a longitudinal mixed-methods evaluation of the programme from 2014 to 2018. Our results show that Plantwise has altered the way the Government of Kenya addresses crop protection. The programme is innovative and improves knowledge at multiple levels. At the farm level, Plantwise has contributed to improvements in the use of agricultural practices, inputs and maize productivity, a major staple crop. The results show that the Plantwise approach is a reasonable alternative to other agricultural extension systems that support smallholder farmers.
•Agricultural extension variable is endogenous in adoption model.•Access to extension services facilitates adoption of chemical fertilizer in Africa.•Gender inequality hinders chemical fertilizer ...adoption by women in Ghana.•Facilitation of chemical fertilizer adoption through extension increases rice yield.
Given the increasing tension between food production and food demand in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the poor development of the rice sector in Africa, the present paper examines the impact of agricultural extension on adoption of chemical fertilizers and their impact on rice productivity in Ghana. A parametric approach was employed to account for selectivity and endogeneity effects, which most impact studies fail to address. The empirical results reveal that agricultural extension service is endogenous in the chemical fertilizer adoption specification. Our findings show that access to extension services significantly promotes adoption of chemical fertilizer. Access to extension services and adoption of chemical fertilizer exert positive influences on rice productivity. Promoting farmer participation in irrigation schemes and row-planting technologies, facilitating easy access to education and credit facilities, sensitization of female farmers and leasing of farmlands are policy alternatives needed to facilitate adoption of chemical fertilizer and access to extension services, with the goal of enhancing rice productivity and the livelihoods of rice farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Governments and various institutions in Africa should train more extension officers, given the significant impact they have on agricultural technology adoption and productivity. Future studies on adoption of agricultural technologies and access to extension services in developing countries should adopt empirical approaches that account for endogeneity and selectivity effect in order to arrive at the precise magnitude and extent of impacts from productive agricultural technologies and interventions.
The top–down public agricultural extension system in China and its early commercialization reforms during the 1990s have left millions of farmers without access to extension services. A pilot ...inclusive agricultural extension system was introduced in 2005 to better meet the diverse needs of small-scale farmers. Three key features of the experiment are (1) inclusion of all farmers as target beneficiaries, (2) effective identification of farmers' extension service needs, and (3) an accountability system to provide better agricultural extension services to farmers. This paper describes design of the reform initiative and examines its effect on farmers' access to extension services. Based on farmer supplied data from six counties for the years 2005 to 2007, this paper shows that inclusive reform initiatives significantly improve farmers' access to and actually received of agricultural extension services as well as their adoption of new technologies. Implications for further reforms to the agricultural extension system are also discussed.
This study examined the use of digital tools in extension services delivery amongst extension agents in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Simple random sampling was used to select 47agricultural extension ...agents for the study. Data were collected using structured questionnaire while analysis of the data was done using mean, percentages, and Binary Logit regression analysis. Results showed that all agricultural extension agents were aware of digital tools. The majority (74%) of the agents indicated that they used digital tools in agricultural extension service delivery with WhatsApp (M =3.60) and Video camera (M =3.60) as the most used digital tools among them. As regards the knowledge level of digital tools among extension agents, they were highly knowledgeable in the use of WhatsApp (M =3.68), and mobile phones calls (M=3.66). Age, educational status, household size, working experience and sex were found to affect extension agents’ utilization of digital tools. The major constraint militating against extension agents use of digital tools in extension service delivery were epileptic power supply (M =3.72) and loss of privacy over internet (M=3.66). It therefore stressed the need for training and retraining of extension agents on the use of digital tools by the Agricultural Development Programme.
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