ABSTRACT

The study examined the technical skills required by Herdsmen for effective cattle ranching and marketing in North West Nigeria. The study specifically was guided by ten research questions and ten null hypotheses. The literature related to the study was reviewed under the conceptual framework, theoretical framework, empirical studies and summary of the literature review. The study adopted a questionnaire survey research design. The entire population was 357 comprising 289 Agricultural Extension Agents who were serving with the Agricultural Development Project (ADP) among 68 Federal University Lecturers of Animal Production within the seven Federal Universities in the North West geo-political zone of Nigeria. There was no need for sampling since the population was manageable. The instrument for data collection was a one hundred and fifty-item structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was validated by three validates, two from the Department of Agricultural/Home Science Education, and one from Measurement and Evaluation Unit of Department of Science Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. The instrument was pilot-tested on 20 Agricultural Extension Agents and 20 Federal University lecturers of Animal Production from two federal universities (Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi and Madibo Adama University of Technology Yola) in the North East to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. The pilot test was analysed using Cronbach Alpha coefficient which yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.84. Data collected for the study were analyzed using mean, standard deviation for the research questions, while t-test of independent was used in testing the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Results showed among others that 15 items were found to be the skills required by herdsmen in managing structures in the ranch, 9 items were found to be the skills required by herdsmen in feeds management in the ranch, that 11 items were found to be the skills required by the herdsmen in the management of water in the ranch,  14 items were found to be skills required by herdsmen in cattle breeding in the ranch and 13 items were found to be skills required by herdsmen in cattle health management in the ranch. There was no significant difference between the mean ratings of the responses of Extension Agents and Federal University Lecturers of Animal Production on the technical skills required by Herdsmen for effective cattle ranching and marketing in the North West, Nigeria. It was thus recommended among others that the identified technical skills should be utilized by the agricultural skills acquisition centers for the training of herdsmen across the country in line with the spirit of the national livestock transformation plan that aim to put an end to indiscriminate movement of the pastoralists and their animals.