EXTENSION SERVICES DELIVERY BIAS IN AGRICULTURE: CROP FARMERS AND PASTORALISTS CHALLENGES IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA
This study assessed extension service delivery bias in agriculture: the crop farmers and pastoralists challenge in Niger State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 120 crop farmers and 40 pastoralists for the study. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaires. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Kendal coefficient of concordance. Results revealed that the mean age of crop farmers and pastoralists were 36 years and 27 years respectively. Majority (89.2%) of the crop farmers and pastoralists (90.0%) were married with the mean household size of 7 people and 8 people respectively. Majority (87.0%) of the crop farmers were formally educated while majority (90.0) of pastoralists were none formally educated. Although 100.0% of crop farmers required support in accessing agricultural loans, only 20.8% received it. Pastoralists require livestock diseases control, animal health and diseases diagnostics, and all were received at rates of 48.0%, 38.2%, and 48.0% respectively. Significant bias for crop farmers included information on pest control (77.0%). Pastoralists experienced biases in extension visits to training on improved breeding techniques (63.0%) and remote areas (75.0%). The challenges faced by crop farmers in accessing extension services were inadequate extension visits ( = 7.39) and high cost of transportation to extension service centers ( = 7.08). Pastoralists faced limited availability of extension agents ( = 8.31) and language barriers ( = 7.16). Government should establish extension stations in rural areas to improve access to services and information to reduce service delivery bias was offered as recommendation.