Competencies of agricultural development programme personnel in extension service delivery in Oyo and Ogun States Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed competencies of agricultural development programme personnel in extension service delivery in Oyo and Ogun states, Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used in selecting 84 extension officers from the study area of which 80 of them completed and returned their questionnaires for analysis. Data were analysed using descriptive (frequency, percentage, mean) and inferential (chi-square, PPMC, multiple regression, t-test) statistics. The mean age of respondents was 46 years, and the majority (65.0%) were males, married (95.0%), had household size of 5-6 persons (53.8%) and had 9-16 years of job experience (40%). All the respondents had attained tertiary education with 47.5% of them at HND level. FNT/MTRM (x̄ =1.91) was rated the most effective education strategy while job shadowing (x̄ =0.73) was the least effective. The majority (57.3%) of the respondents attributed high level of importance to the selected competencies while professionalism (x̄ =12.65) was considered the most important. Organisational management (x̄ =19.70) was the most possessed competency, 51.2% of respondents possessed high level of competency and training need was identified in all the competency areas. The respondents level of competence was significantly related to age (r=0.221, p≤0.05), years of work experience (r=0.267, p≤0.05), and education strategies with short-term course/seminars (1-2 weeks) conducted at zonal level as the major predictor. Also, a significant difference existed between the competency levels of respondent in Oyo and Ogun states (t=2.061, p≤0.05). It was recommended that the ADPs should organise special annual in-service training programmes in order to help extension officers improve their level of competence.

Keywords: Competencies, extension service delivery, ADP personnel, in-service training