The role of Extension Officers in the evaluation of agricultural projects in the Bojanala Region, North West Province, South Africa

Abstract

Research indicated clearly the importance of participatory evaluation of projects, the involvement of all project stakeholders, and that evaluation is not a once off activity at the end of a project. There are currently 474 agricultural projects in operation in the Bojanala Region of the North West Province and the objective of this study is to determine extension officers knowledge and participation with regard to their proficiency to formulate project objectives; determine the frequency of project evaluation and to determine the extent of project committee members involvement in the evaluation of projects. Specific attention was given to the influence of the independent variables gender; age; level of education and years of experience of the extension officers. Only 31% male against 17% female reveal an excellent proficiency to formulate project objectives. 70% of the respondents with 15 years or less of service indicated an above and excellent proficiency to formulate objectives. The younger the respondents the more (70%) they evaluate the projects on a monthly and less frequency than the older respondents (43.5%). Only a slight difference occur namely in favour of the more experienced respondents (33%) against the less experienced respondents (27%), knowing the committee member’s involvement in evaluation.

Keywords: Evaluation approaches in extension, objective formulation, evaluation frequency, and extension staff.