This article examines the factors influencing the effectiveness of traditional extension models among rural dwellers in Sub-Saharan African communities. The study was conducted in two rural communities in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The representative sample involved 200 randomly selected smallholder farmers. In addition, 20 extension workers were purposively selected from four institutions that provide extension and advisory services in Nigeria. The study used focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and structured questionnaires to collect relevant information. Data were analyzed using statistical software. The overall findings revealed that the current extension services in the study area are ineffective and inefficient to meet the needs of rural farmers. In the same vein, almost all the extension worker participants unanimously reported that after the withdrawal of World Bank funding to Agricultural Development Project (ADP), the Federal Government of Nigeria finds it extremely difficult to independently fund the extension and advisory services. Moreover, 69.5% of the smallholder farmers indicated that they had no visit/contact with extension agents in the last one year, while 86% reported that extension service delivery was not effective in the area. Also, exceptionally low numbers of extension workers and poor funding were ranked as the fundamental challenges confronting extension services in the area. Base on this, it is recommended that Federal and State Ministry of Agriculture should recruit more agricultural graduates" youths and train them. More extension workers need to be hired in order to significantly reduce the problem of the extension workers to farm families" ratio which is currently 1:3000 in the Kaduna State, Nigeria.

The awareness and the extent of usage of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) components by Village Extension Agents (VEAs), in three selected States Agricultural Development Projects (ADPs) of Nigeria, were investigated. Two hundred and four (204) VEAs were sampled as respondents for the study. With aid of simple statistical tools (average, cumulative and percentages), and the analysis of the results indicate that the level of awareness of ICTs among the respondents (VEAs) was quite high especially on radio (99%), GSM phones (96%); and television (93%). On the contrary, the level of awareness was low on fax (68%) and Personal Digital Assistant (PDAs) (69%). It was also noted that the following devices were highly used by the respondents; GSM phones, radio, cassette recorder, television, CD/DVD player and VHS Video player. Unfortunately, the respondents recorded least ICT usage on fax and PDAs. It was recommended that both awareness and usage of available ICT formats should be intensified among VEAs so as to optimize their usage in the effective performance on the job.

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This study explored smallholder farmers' perception on the uptake of agricultural innovations in Kuje area council of Abuja, FCT. The study was carried out in three communities in Kuje namely, Chukuku, Chibiri and Dafara. The study was guided basically by four objectives which were all analysed using descriptive statistics. The communities in which the study was carried out were sampled purposively and 80 smallholder farmers were in total selected from the three communities. Well structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data. However, assistance was given to a few farmers who weren't literate enough to read the contents of the questionnaire. Findings from the study were presented in frequency and percentage distribution tables. Results from the study revealed that smallholder farmers had varying perceptions about agricultural innovations ranging from good, bad to indifferent. Most of the smallholder farmers in the study area believed that agricultural innovations are good, they however insisted that agricultural innovations were sometimes difficult to understand and also there were issues with poor follow up by the introducer of innovations (mostly agricultural extension agent). Based on this, it was recommended that: agricultural innovations should meet the needs of farmers and should be at their level of understanding. Also, introducers of agricultural innovations should endeavour to improve on their follow up activities to ensure ultimate uptake of innovation by farmers.

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The study examined the socio economic factors influencing the effectiveness of improved soil management practices among rice farmers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The study was conducted in Gwagwalada, FCT, Abuja. Two objectives guided the study. The study adopted descriptive research design. Multi stage sampling technique was used to select rice farmers, while a well-structured questionnaire was used for data collection from the 360 rice farmers used for the study. Objectives of the study were achieved using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. The results show that 58.06% of the rice farmers were male, 36.13% were between the ages of 30 and 39years, 47.74% of them were married with 40% having an average of 5 people in their households. Also 61.94% had at most a national certificate of education (NCE). Majority (44.84) of the rice farmers had a farm size of between half a hectare and two hectares. Zero tillage, with a weighted mean score of 2.95, is the most effective soil management practice in the study area, while fertilizer application with a mean score of 3.2 is the most effective fertility practice among the rice farmers in the study area. The result further revealed that with a weighted mean score of 2.5, the respondents agree with the assertion that location of the soil determines the effectiveness of management practices. The result of the logistic regression shows that sex, age, education and farm size all had significant influences on the effectiveness of soil management practices in the study area. It was recommended that manual tillage should be mostly carried out by rice farmer to improve the level of production, use of fertilizer by the farmers to improve the land fertility level should be encouraged, terracing is required to control erosion as most of the rice farm lands are areas that require water which have high tendency of erosion, soil rotation should be practiced where soil is much available to reduce the level of degradation, organic farming should be practiced to reduce the application of chemicals that will constitute hazard to the soil. Keywords: Rice farmers, improved soil management, adoption, effectiveness, zero tillage