The study examined or assessed the gap between extension agents, extension strategies, capacity buildinga and constraints of rice production in agricultural zone of Niger State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting 48 respondents. Data were collected through the administration of questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study found that a participatory approach is not fully decentralized in planning, monitoring and evaluation of the agricultural extension programs to meet the demand-driven services of the farmers in the study area. Moreover, there is a difference between the capacity building of the extension personnel and the constraints incurred in rice production. The capacity building is mostly focused on production and post-harvest of rice production, while having multitude of constraints in marketing as well. Therefore, it is recommended that a participatory approach must be fully promoted and the capacity building of extension personnel must be melded with the demand-driven needs of farmers in approaching the rice production issues. The study will be needful for extension agents, policymakers, researchers, educationists and stakeholders in Agriculture and non-Agricultural sectors so as to understand ways of increasing the quality and effectiveness of agricultural extension services to foster agricultural production.
The study was on demographic characteristics of rice producers operating under agricultural transformation agenda support programme in agricultural zone 1 (ATASP-I) of Niger State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 165 of rice producers. Data were collected using structured questionnaire and interview scheduled; and analyzed using descriptive statistics (percentage, frequency and mean), Likert scale and Kendall’s coefficient of concordance. The result revealed that 77.5% of the respondents were males while their mean age was 40 years. Also, 77.5% of the respondents were married; 36.3% had no formal education; and 67.2% had household size between 6-8 people. The result of participation of rice producers in ATASP-I revealed that training at the local level ranked 1st with mean value of 2.70, application of fertilizer ranked 2nd with mean value of 2.68, and planting activities ranked 3rd with mean value of 2.61. these findings is an indication of high participation of rice producers in those activities; also results further showed that ploughing activities and linkages with financial institution with mean value 1.20 and 1.10 has lower participation by rice producers in the study area. The major constraints encountered by the respondents were poor credit facilities ( = 4.13) and high cost of equipment ( = 4.57). It was recommended that provision of credit facilities should be made available to rice producers timely and speedily; and good extension services should be provided to rice farmers by ATASP-I in order to enhance their outputs and strengthen their capacity.
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