ABSTRACT

 This study is focused on the capacity building needed by teachers of agriculture in maize production for effective teaching ofstudents in secondary schools in Obowo LGA Imo State. Six research questions and six hypotheses guided the study. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The population for the study was 27. The entire population was used for the study. A 57-item questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts. Cronbach Alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. A reliability coefficient of 0.82 was obtained. Twenty-seven copies of the questionnaire were administered to the respondents by the researchers with the help of research assistants. All the administered copies of the questionnaire were retrieved and analyzed using mean and Improvement Need Index (INI) to answer the research Questions and the hypotheses was tested using mean, standard deviation and t -test. The findings revealed that ten (10) skills were needed in planning for maize production, fifteen (15) skills were needed in pre-planting of maize, Four (4) skills were needed in planting of maize. Seven (7) skills were needed in postplanting, Five (5) skills were needed in harvesting of maize and Sixteen (16) skills were needed in post-harvesting ofmaize products. It was found out that the teachers ofAgricultural science in Obowo LGA Imo State needed capacity building in 4 skill items involved in planning of maize production, 9 skill items involved in pre-planting operation, 4 skill items involved in planting operation, 4 skill items involved in post-planting operation, 5 skill items involved in harvesting operation and 9 skill items involved in post-harvesting operations of maize production. The result ofthe null hypotheses tested revealed that there was no significant differences in the mean rating of the groups of respondents on skills needed by male and female Agricultural Science teachers in maize production. It was recommended that the identified skills in this study should be packaged by the government and curriculum planners into the curriculum of agricultural science in secondary schools where it could be implemented by the teachers of agriculture in teaching maize production.

Keywords: Capacity Building Needs, Agricultural teachers, Production, Planning operation, Pre-planting operation, Planting operation, Post-planting operation, Harvesting operation and Post harvesting operation.