Assessment Of The Extension Materials Produced And Used In Disseminating Information To Farmers By Extension Agents Of Agricultural Development Programme (Adp), Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed extension materials produced and used for information
dissemination by extension agents in Edo State ADP. Forty-nine extension agents were randomly selected from a total of 54 for this study. Findings show that 77.6% of the respondents are males, 77.5% of them have between 10 to 30 years of working experience. The respondents are all formally educated with 85.7% of them being NCE/ND holders. Posters (Mean=2.89), leaflets (Mean=2.67), radio broadcasts (Mean=2.53) and television broadcasts (Mean =2.51) are mostly produced and used to disseminate information to farmers. Video CDs M=2.02) and audio CDs (Mean=2.00) are also sometimes used. The most important considerations in extension materials preparation all the time by respondents were educational level of audience (Mean=2.98), message content (Mean= 2.97), availability of the materials (Mean=2.96 and available resources (Mean=2.96).
Inadequate funds (Mean= 2.94), high cost of procuring and maintaining most audiovisual materials, (Mean=2.90), lack of sufficient materials for production to meet farmers\' needs (Mean=2.87), transportation (Mean=2.84) and evaluation of extension materials for possible adjustments (Mean= 2.74) were identified as the predominant constraints encountered in extension material development and dissemination. The study also showed a significant association between the working experience of the extension agents and the types of extension materials developed. It is therefore recommended that more funds should be provided and extension agents should be adequately trained to improve their skills in extension materials production and usage.

Keywords: Extension agents, extension materials production, information to farmers

Global Approaches to Extension Practice Vol. 4 (1) 2008: pp. 1-10