Farmers Perception for Effective Extension Teaching Methods in Katcha and Bida LGAs of Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed farmers’ perception for effective extension teaching methods in Niger State. The specific objectives were to  describe the socioeconomic characteristics of farmers in the study area, identify the extension teaching methods used by extension agents in and examine the farmers’ perception of effectiveness of the extension teaching methods. Multi-stage sampling technique was used for this study. A total of 114 respondents were randomly selected from Badeggi, and Katcha in Katcha LGA, Dangana and Bida in Bida LGA. Data was collected with the aid of structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages and Mean scores was used to analyze objectives. The majority of the farmers (39.5%) were between ages of 20-29. The mean age was 31 years. The findings also showed that the majority (60.5%) of the respondents were male. The majority (50%) of the farmers were married, most (42.1%) had farming experience of 1-10 with a mean of 12 years. Results also showed that the majority (50%) of  household size were between 1-5 in the study area. The mean was 9. Group discussion ( =4.33) was perceived by the respondents to be highly effective method in transmission of information to the farmers and ranked 1st while Use of radio ( =3.83) was agreed by the respondent to also be effective method and ranked 2nd. The results showed that the extension teaching methods that were preferred by the farmers were group discussion, demonstration and radio ranked 1st. 2nd and 3rd with mean scores 4.33, 3.67 and 3.50 respectively. It was concluded that the extension methods utilized by the extension agents proved to be effective. It is recommended that more extension agents should be employed to reduce the farmer to extension agent ratio, it is also recommended that government should budget more money to extension institutions that provide services to small farmers and rural communities in Nigeria, extension personnel should also make their contacts regular with farmers for rapid adoption and diffusion of improved agricultural technologies and extension workers activities should be supervised periodically on regular basis by a monitoring and evaluation supervisors. Keywords: Assessment, Farmer’s perception, Effectiveness, Teaching methods