Assessment of farmers opinion towards agricultural extension service delivery in Esan Southeast and Esan Central Local Government Areas of Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study focused on the opinion of farmers toward the delivery of agricultural extension services in Esan Southeast and Esan Central Local Government Areas of Edo state. A multi-stage sampling technique was used in the selection of three hundred (300) farmers for the study. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents and data obtained were analyzed using descriptive (frequency counts, mean, percentages) and inferential (Spearman’s Rank Correlation) statistics was used to determine the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The findings of the study showed that for crop production packages, frequent farmer-extension contact was evident, with mean scores indicating regular interaction in various stages such as site selection (3.82), harrowing (3.76), and crop protection (4.28). Similarly, livestock packages exhibit consistent contact, with mean scores emphasizing communication in areas like feed formulation/feeding (5.24) and provision of security (4.73). All the respondents willingly accepted extension packages, with none rejecting offers. Only few (13%) of the respondents independently seek information on improved extension packages, while 12.7% of the respondents trusted extension agents' judgement on extension packages provided. Additionally, more than half (54%) of the respondents supported mobile phone use for accessing improved extension packages. The study reveals a strong positive correlation (r=0.844; p < 0.01) between frequency of farmers contact with extension agents and farmers opinion towards effectiveness of extension services delivery, which implies that increasing the frequency of contact between farmers and extension agents could potentially improve farmers' perceptions of the effectiveness of these services. It is therefore, recommended that extension service providers should consider strategies to increase interactions with farmers in other to foster continuous positive results and outcomes.