PERCEIEVED EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME CAPACITY BUILDING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF ARABLE CROP BASED CONTACT FARMERS IN UMUAHIA AGRICULTURAL ZONE OF ABIA STATE, NIGERIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejefr.v0i0.74Słowa kluczowe:
ADP, contact farmer, effect, performance, Umuahia agricultural zoneAbstrakt
The study which was conducted in Umuahia Agricultural Zone of Abia State, Nigeria made use of the EAs in the Zone in identifying the contact – farmers. A simple random method was used to select 20 % of the contact farmers which gave a sample size of 144 respondents that was used. Structured questionnaire was used in the generation of the primary data. Descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of the data. Results showed 69.4 % of the respondents were males, and 30.6 % females. About 83.3 % were married with a mean age of 43 years and 93.1 % had formal education with a mean household of 6 persons, and 13.5 years, of mean years of farming experience with a mean farm- size of 0.9 hectares and mean monthly income of ₦33,569.44 respectively. A high level (X = 2.68) of participation in ADP – capacity building programmes was recorded. The respondents, were within the categories of early adopters (X = 3.68) in the adoption of ADP recommended innovations. About (X = 69.4 %) of the respondents indicated that, the ADP trainings did not address their felt needs, (X = 62.5 %) sessions were held at the wrong time, (X = 58.3%) training centres not centralized and (X= 51.4%) felt that training sessions were too long & boring. The study recommends that the ADP should strengthen the feedback mechanism as to ensure that their trainings address the felt needs of farmers. Also, a performance evaluation of the contact farmers by the ADP should be a regular exercise as to ensure that it is only the performing ones that are retained as contact farmers, mostly in the study area.
JEL: N5, O13, Q13, Q18
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