Effectiveness of Farmer Field School on the Productivity of Cassava Farmers in Calabar Agricultural Zone, Cross River State, Nigeria (Published)
The goal of this research was to assess the effectiveness of Farmer Field School on the productivity of cassava farmers in Calabar agricultural zone, Cross River State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of respondents; determine the perceived effectiveness of FFS as an extension approach; and assess the perceived effectiveness of FFS on farmers’ productivity one hypothesis, “there is no significant difference between yield and income of participants before and after participation in FFS” was formulated to serve as a guide for the research. Multi-stage and purposive sampling procedures were used to select 320 respondents for the study. However, on retrieval, 318 questionnaires were realized. Primary and secondary data were the main sources of information for the study. Structured questionnaire, validated and tested for reliability was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency and percentages, were used to analyze the objectives. Paired t-test was used to analyze the hypothesis. The result revealed that majority (64.5%) of the respondents were men, 39.3 percent were between the age bracket of 31-40 years, 86.5 percent were married, with a mean household size of 6 persons. The result further showed that FFS was positively perceived to be an effective extension approach (=2.83); helping farmers gather useful information to improve their farming (=2.84), among others. The result also showed that FFS was perceived to be effective in increasing the output and income of farmers after participation. Paired t-test revealed average yield of 69.90kg and 146.96kg, as well as average income of N35,773.58 and N75,411.95, before and after FFS. The difference was significant at 0.01 alpha level. FFS should be scaled up to cover all the Local Government Areas in the State and Country at large. It was also recommended that FFS should be used by extension service providers as effective training approach to avail participants with hands-on knowledge about their enterprises.
Citation: N.A., Ayi and U.C., Undiandeye(2022) Effectiveness of Farmer Field School on the Productivity of Cassava Farmers in Calabar Agricultural Zone, Cross River State, Nigeria, International Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Studies, Vol.9, No.1, pp.19-37
Keywords: Approach, Effectiveness, extension, farmer field school
Effectiveness of Gender Participation in Agricultural Productivity in Zuru Southern Guinea Savannah of Nigeria (Published)
The research was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of gender participation in agricultural productivity in Zuru southern guinea savannah, kebbi state. Simple random sampling technique was used to select one hundred and twenty (120) farmers in all while proportionate sampling was used to select 70 males, 50 females from four local government areas (LGAs) of the emirate. Descriptive and inferential statistics (chi-square analysis) was used to analyze the data collected. Results showed that majority (70%) of the female and 37.1% of the male were between 26 – 47 years of age, 90% (male) and 70% (female) had one form of education or the other, and cultivated less than 2 acres of farmland. The female respondents were more effectively involved in marketing of agricultural produce (78.8%) and processing (60.2%) while male respondents were more actively involved in land clearing (55.7%), planting (67.1%) and thinning (77.1%). Lack of credit facilities, lack of government support and lack of access to input were some factors identified to be affecting gender participation in agricultural productivity in the emirate. Chi-square analysis recommended that government should come up with a policy to support agricultural activities in the emirate so as to reduce the problem of food insecurity and hunger in the study area.
Keywords: Agricultural Productivity, Effectiveness, gender participation, guinea savannah
Video Documentary Training in Agricultural Extension in the 21st Century: A Qualitative Assessment of Cassava Farmers in South-West Nigeria (Published)
Video documentaries are means of communication adopted by several sectors including agriculture to pass useful and required information to respective audiences. It has become one of the major tools utilized by extension agents as instructional materials for agricultural educational purposes in major parts of the world. In Nigeria, agricultural programmes are packaged by extension agents in collaboration with some media houses and broadcast at certain times which may not be convenient to watch, understand, and later referred to. This study therefore assessed the effectiveness of video documentary as training tool for farmers in south-west Nigeria. Methodologically, the qualitative approach was adopted as farmers were trained with the aid of a video documentary as instructional material and were assessed before and after the trainings provided with structured interview guides to gather the data required. The findings showed that video documentaries are effective training tools that aid understanding and retention of information shared even after several weeks of the training. Conventional extension practice is enjoined to embrace video documentaries as instructional training tools to facilitate and enhance farmer’s agricultural learning.
Keywords: Agricultural Extension, Effectiveness, Nigeria, South-western States, Video documentary