ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the agricultural extension activities of Green River Project (GRP) in rural communities of Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The GRP is an agricultural extension project of the Nigeria Agip Oil Company. The study objectives analysed the socio-economic characteristics of beneficiaries, investigated the adoption status of the Project, determined the current level of poverty reduction indicators achieved through the Project by beneficiaries, assessed beneficiaries' perceptions about the achievement of the Project's objectives and determined the problems militating against their adoption of the extension technologies. Data collection for the study was by the use of structured questionnaire and interview schedule which were administered through the stratified and random sampling techniques. The sample size of the study was made up of 270 beneficiaries of the Project drawn randomly from the three randomly selected states out of the four states where GRP is operational in the Niger Delta region. Descriptive statistics of frequency distribution, percentages and means score were used for data analyses. The tests for stated null hypotheses were carried out with the inferential statistics involving Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) of the F-statistics and multiple regression analysis. Soclo-economic results indicated that 57.8% of the respondents were males. Their average age was 48 years with First School Leaving Certificate as their highest (38.9%) level of education. The average household size of the Project's beneficiaries was 7 persons. The highest (3 7.8%) annual net farm income of beneficiaries in the Project was in the range of N(44,000.00 — 94,000.00) per year. More (58.5%) beneficiaries had three times monthly contacts with the Project's Extension Officers. The Project's mean adoption status in the region was 56.6%. The production recommendation for cassavalmaize/egusi intercrop was the most (77. 56%) adopted into the region's farming systems. A good number (78.9%) of beneficiaries indicated that insufficient storage facilities was their major militating problem to adoption. Improvement of the traditional system of agriculture of the rural communities was the best satisfying objective of the Project to beneficiaries with a mean result of 3.76, while the least was distribution of capture fisheries facilities with a mean result of 2.29 response. While the result for hypotheses 1 and 4 were not significant and accepted, hypotheses 2 and 5 were significant and therefore rejected. The relationship between socio-economic characteristics of beneficiaries and adoption status in hypothesis 3 gave an R2of 0.668 and therefore explained about 66.8% variability of the adoption behaviour of the beneficiaries. The study recommended the involvement of more youth farmers as beneficiaries, improvement of the educational levels of beneficiaries through adult education, improvement in the distribution of capture fisheries facilities and improvement of storage facilities for farm products of beneficiaries.