Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education: A Review of Demand-Driven Agricultural Extension Education in Nigeria

Abstract

The paper examined demand-driven agricultural extension education in Nigeria and emphasized the need for extension professionals to acquire soft skills in addition to their technical capabilities through the utilization of demand-driven extension education (DDEE) strategies. A review of demand-driven agricultural extension education in Nigeria as introduced by Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education in universities was carried out to assess the concepts of demand-driven extension education, capacity development, skill, skill- mismatch. The reviews were analysed using themes and the findings were reported based on the themes identified from the review analysis. Job matching and human capital theories are the theoretical underpinning for this paper. The paper further highlighted the numerous benefits of DDEE prominent among which include its ability to adapt to the need of the learners and employers, utilize dynamic work-based pedagogy to improve competencies, and respond to the needs of the labour markets to ensure continuous alignment between desired qualification and available training. It is important to properly mainstream the use of demand-driven extension education strategies in training extension personnel for better and more sustainable extension and services delivery to farmers.

Keywords: Agricultural extension, agricultural education, demand-driven extension education, capacity development, skill, skill-  mismatch