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Assessment Of Extension Workers And Practice Of Agricultural Extension Principles
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Farmers who have better access to information and communication have
access to price information, access to agriculture information, access
to agriculture information, access to national and international market,
increasing production efficiency, creating conducive policy environment
through an informed extension agent or worker who have a broader
experience. Agriculture is facing new and severe challenges in its right
with rising food prices that have push over 40 million into poverty
since 2010 (World Bank 2011). The growing global population, expected to
hit a billion by 2050, has heighted the demand for food and place
pressure on already fragile resources, feeding the population will
require a 70% increases in Food production (F.AO. 2009). Most
importantly, the democratization of information and science facilitated
by ICT is also contributing to agriculture and rural development more
broadly, using conventional information and communication tools.
Majority of extension workers have attained adulthood, a stage that is
very critical, at which human beings should be controlled, applying
basic skills and knowledge.
Agricultural extension is a professional
field of information system aimed at educating people in their own
context and life situation and acquires knowledge and skills on how to
effectively deal with such problems so as to improve their living
condition. (Ashimolowo 2002). Adopted agricultural extension system is
the training and visit (T and V) agricultural extension system. It was
developed for the World Bank by (Benor 2002) and aid at improving the
rural farmer’s productivities through efficient agricultural extension
service delivery in the developing countries. The system was introduced
into the Nigeria Agricultural system in the mid-70s when it was tried in
three encloses of Gasau, Funtua and Gombe, the recorded success from
the trial led to state wide implementation of the extension system,
Agricultural this is not enough as there are also changes and
developments in agricultural development programme (ADP), to reach out
to all the rural farmers across the country, each state is structure
into zones, blocks and cells. The extension personnel are as grouped as
zonal manager, block extension supervisor/argent and the subject matter
specialists. The extension agents are expected to cover between 8 and 10
cells where they relate directly with the farmers, reaching out to them
with extension services at interval of two research institution base
for the extension workers is the research institution where innovation
and technical information to serve the farmers are generated, in Nigeria
there are eighteen research institutes with each of them having
specific research mandate (Lawal Adebowale 2002).
One of the basic
functions of agricultural extension remains the dissemination of useful
agricultural information from research to the end-users. The mass media
have been greatly used in delivering this information. But the
information boom of this century requires that worthwhile strategies of
communication be developed and utilized. In order to meet up with the
information explosion trend, agricultural extension needs to intensify
efforts to acquire the necessary information and communication
technology facilities that are available. The categories of persons who
should have access to information technologies for proper direction are
the extension managers and supervisors. They know enough to influence
decisions in their organizations. Waldron et al., (1997) stated that an
extension programme manager is the person that vested with formal
authority over an organization or one of its sub units. He or she has
status that leads t various inter-personal relations and from this comes
access to information. Information enables the manager to devise
strategies, make decisions and implement action. VITA (1995) pointed out
that modern communication techniques and facilities, which ensure
uninterrupted access to large amount of agricultural information, have
become necessary in hiding the distinction between urban and rural
dwellers. These modern communication techniques are generally referred
to as Information technology (IT) facilities. Moll (1982) cited in Madu
and Adeniran (2000) classified IT into two groups viz high and low. The
low technology includes equipment and machines like typewriters, offset
printing machines, microform readers, projectors, stapler, paper cutter,
perforators, catalogue, radio, telephone, television sets.
The high
information technology, on the other hand, consists of the various means
of obtaining or transferring information using computer,
telecommunications and microelectronics. Nzeakor (1991) declared that
information technology could help rural communities to leapfrog from
peasant farming to modern agriculture.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]Despite the existence of relevant information to increase Agricultural Productivity, many farmers are yet to receive such information due to the limited number of extension workers, particularly in developing nations like Nigeria. Hence, this study was carried out to assess extension workers and practice of extension principles in Edo and Delta States.A multistage sampling techniques was adopted in randomly selecting 80 and 120 respondents from Four Local Government Areas each with high concentr ... Continue reading---
