Assessment of Extension Delivery Methods to Farmers in Apa Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

Information plays a very important role in agriculture in particular and life in general. Agriculture has become information-intensive; information is required for livestock and crop production. It empowers farmers to respond to market incentives, risks, and competition. Farmers access information from a variety of sources. These sources can be divided into formal and informal information networks. The study assessed extension delivery methods to farmers in Apa Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria. Stratified, purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used in selecting 125 respondents through survey. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that males were 74.2%, the respondents 49% were between 26 and 35 years, 61.7% were married, 52% had farm size of 6 hectares and above. About 34% earned an estimated annual income of between ₦100,000.0 and ₦500,000.0, 83.3% acquired land through inheritance and 47.5% obtained information from extension services using radio. About 50% of identified characteristics of the effectiveness of extension delivery methods used were helped solve problems and 86% of constraints to the effectiveness of extension delivery methods used were poor infrastructure. It is recommended that government and non-governmental organizations should provide infrastructure, organize adult education for farmers and organize training to update knowledge of extension workers.