Perceived Effects of Extension Services Delivered to Cassava Farmers in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was on perceived effects of extension service delivered to cassava farmers in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, Rivers State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted to select ten communities, and 100 respondents were selected for the study. Questionnaire instrument mostly designed in Likert type rating scale was used to elicit information from the respondents. Descriptive statistics such as percentage and mean scores were used to analyze the data. Multiple linear regression was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05% significant level. The result showed that majority (64.2%) of the respondents were females while 35.8% were male, 38.9% of them were between the ages of 20-29yrs, most (48.4%) of the respondents were married and majority (42.1%) of them had household size of 4-6 persons. It was revealed that 32.6% of the sampled respondents earned N30,000- N49,000 naira monthly and majority (92.6%) of the respondents had one form of education or the other and had good knowledge of extension services. It also showed that training on plant spacing technique (x ̅ = 3.17), formation of cassava corporative organizations for mutual help (x ̅ = 3.12), sourcing for credit/loan from federal institutions for assistance (x ̅ = 3.07), application of fertilizer on planted cassava (x ̅ = 3.04), processing of cassava tubes to fufu, flour, chips etc (x ̅ = 3.03), were agreed as extension services delivered on cassava with an average mean score of 2.97. The effects of extension service delivery on cassava were reduced poor yield of cassava (x ̅ = 3.42), provides up-to-date information on cassava farming techniques (x ̅ = 3.01), improved cassava yield (x ̅ = 3.00), availability of cassava in the market (x ̅ = 2.86), adoption of new farming practices on cassava production (x ̅ = 2.84), increased food sec poor yield of cassava among others. Finally, the result also showed that, lack of financial support (x ̅ = 3.45), poor availability of farm credits and insecurity (x ̅ = 3.14), flooding of farmland (x ̅ = 3.08), high cost of fertilizers (x ̅ = 3.04), government policies (x ̅ = 3.03), inadequate training and follow-up from extension officers (x ̅ = 2.93), unavailability of improved cassava stems to use (x ̅ = 2.72) were the challenges of extension service delivery on cassava production. The regression analysis showed a statistically significant relationship between the socio-economic characteristics of farmers and effectiveness of extension programs in the study area at a probability level of 0.05. Based on the findings, the study recommended that state and local government should enhance funding for extension programs to ensure they can provide comprehensive support and resources to farmers