Location and distance of farmers to agricultural extension service: implication for agricultural development in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the location and distance covered by farmers to agricultural extension service/unit among farmers in Oyo state. Furthermore, it tried to look at the implication on farmers’ agricultural production. A multistage random sampling procedure was used to select 320 farmers from four agricultural zones (Ibadan/Ibarapa, Ogbomoso, Oyo and Saki) of Oyo State Agricultural Development programme (OYSADEP). Farmers were selected from 8 local government areas and from 124 villages. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the results from the study. Findings revealed that agricultural extension agents were within the reach of farmers as 79.1% of the farmers indicated that agricultural extension agents were the major source of agricultural information and also provided advisory service (77.8%). The mean distance covered by farmers to extension units was 17.8km but bad road network (77.5%) and low extension-farmer ratio (64.1%) were some of the major constraints identified by farmers as affecting extension service delivery. Regression analysis between distance of farmers to extension and other production incentives show a positive relationship (p<0.00) on income alone. Therefore, it is recommended that the government improve road conditions and also invest funds to support the Agricultural development Programme (ADP) system.

Keywords: Location, distance, extension service/unit, agricultural production