Assessment of extension agents’ use of communication methods and its impact on aquaculture linkage activities in Lagos state, Nigeria

Abstract

The need to improve aquaculture production through enhanced technology transfer necessitated this study to assess extension agents’ use of communication methods and its impact on linkage. A structured questionnaire was administered to 44 extension agents who were randomly selected from Lagos State Agricultural Development Authority. Descriptive and correlation analysis were used for data analysis. The results showed that extension agents are involved in various communication methods between institutes, within institutes and researchers; also, prominent linkage activities, such as joint priority setting and planning (95.5%), research-extension training (81.8%), evaluation reports (72%) and joint programming (65.9%) exist among the extension agents. Findings from correlation analysis revealed that there was significant relationship between linkage and communication methods between institute (r =-0.377), linkage and communication methods among extension agents (r =0.379). However, the relationship between communication within and between institute was highly significant (r =0.693), within institute and extension agents (r = 0.458) and within institute and interaction with other scientists (r =0.577) at 0.05 level. The study recommended that extension agents should be provided with all necessary materials that would facilitate effective communication for improvement in service delivery to the fish farmers that are the end users.

Keywords: Assessment; communication methods; extension agents; linkage activities; impact