ABSTRACT

Agricultural extension service delivery at the grassroots is one of the duties of local government councils in Nigeria, but the effectiveness of the agriculture departments of these councils in performing their agricultural extension duties in Imo State has not been extensively studied. Hence, the study. Specifically, the study sought to; describe the socio-economic characteristics of respondents, examine farmers' awareness of agricultural extension activities of agriculture departments, ascertain the effectiveness of the departments in carrying out extension activities, determine farmers' adoption level of technologies disseminated by the departments and ascertain factors influencing the departments in carrying out extension activities. Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select 120 farmers and 40 agriculture department staff from two agricultural zones for the study. Primary data were used in the study. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages and mean scores, while t-test and multiple regression analysis were used to test the null hypotheses at 5% level of significance. The study revealed that the mean age of farmers was 45.6 years, 57.5% of the farmers were females while 42.5% were males. Farmers were aware of the following extension activities of agriculture departments; distribution of farm inputs (66%), organization of demonstrations (59%) and organization of farmer training (47%). The grand mean score of the responses of farmers and agriculture department staff on the effectiveness of agriculture departments in extension service delivery was 2.40 which was below the bench mark mean score of 2.55 on a four-point rating scale. This implied that the agriculture departments were not effective in extension service delivery. The grand mean score of the responses of farmers on their adoption level of extension technologies disseminated by the agriculture departments was 2.0 which was below the bench mark mean score of 2.05 on a three-point rating scale. This implied that farmers' adoption level of extension technologies was low. Operational fund (= 3.3), staff remuneration (= 3.2) and mobility for agriculture staff (= 3.2) were major factors influencing effectiveness of agriculture departments in extension service delivery. The results of the hypotheses testing showed that for hypothesis one, the study found significant difference between the mean ratings of farmers and agriculture department staff on effectiveness of agriculture departments in carrying out extension activities at 5% level of significance. For hypothesis two, the result showed significant relationship between age, educational status and working experience of agriculture department staff and effectiveness of agriculture departments in extension service delivery at 1% level of significance. For hypothesis three, the result showed significant relationship between mobility for staff, availability of physical facilities and budget allocation to agriculture department and the effectiveness of agriculture departments in extension service delivery at 1% level of significance. The study concluded that agriculture departments were ineffective in extension service delivery in Imo State. The study recommended among others that local government councils should be adequately funded and provided with adequate logistics such as mobility for delivering agricultural extension services.