INFORMATION NEEDS OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORKERS IN NIGERIA

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1 Annals of Library Science and Documentation 1989, 36(1.2), INFORMATION NEEDS OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORKERS IN NIGERIA LOAINA Lecturer Department of Library Studies University of lbadan NIGERIA The information needs of agricultural extension workers were surveyed taking 73 extension workers in Ibadan area as a sample. The study revealed that information needs of the extension workers are in the areas of control of major pests, credit and co-operatives, proper handling of insecticides, marketing system of agricultural products, etc. It is opined that librarians, journalists and local government officials could be actively involved in the information support of agricultural extension workers in Nigeria. INTRODUCTION The development of agricultural extension services in Nigeria can be traced to the period of British colonial government, as it was patterned along the British type of extension services. According to Williams [ 1] one cannot say exactly when the extension services started in Nigeria, although it is generally assumed that it started in 1893 when a Department of Botanical Gardens was established in Lagos. Today agricultural extension service is' an important component of agricultural development in Nigeria. Each state ministry of agriculture and natural resources in Nigeria has an extension services division, which is responsible for providing agricultural information to farmers within each state. Apart from the state ministries of agriculture and natural resources, agricultural research institutes in Nigeria transfer agricultural information directly to farmers in their immediate environments through the setting up of Agricultural Extension Research and Liaison Services (AERLS) in the institutes. According to Akinsorotan [2], an AERLS is expected to liaise between research scientists and the users of research results, i.e. the farmers. The various Faculties of Agriculture in Nigerian universities also carry out extension services through the Departments of Agricultural Ex- 28 tension by providing information to farmers in selected areas of their immediate environments. Are [3] and Williams [4] have categorised agricultural extension workers in Nigeria into three. These are : (i) agricultural extension administrations; (ii) agricultural extension supervisors; and (iii) agricultural extension technicians The extension administrators and extension supervisors generally possess university degrees in agriculture or other related subjects, and they may have received further training in agricultural extension services. The agricultural extension administrators comprise Principal Agricultural Officers, Principal Research Officers, Assistant Directors, Chief Agricultural Officers, etc. while the extension supervisors include Agricultural Officers and Research Officers or their equivalents, The extension administrators formulate policies on agricultural extension and the extension supervisors supervise the execution of such policies. Extension technicians, on the other hand, will usually have undergone ~ five year secondary school education plus at least a two-year diploma course in agriculture which qualified them for the Ordinary National Diploma (OND). Others go further to obtain the Higher National Diploma (HND) in agriculture. They interact more with farmers than the other two roups, The extension technicians consist 0 Agricultural Superintendents and Principal Agricultural Superintendents. They assist the extension supervisors in executing agricultural policies. The major duty of agricultural extension workers is the providing of agricultural information to farmers, thereby assisting farmers in increasing their production. They are expected to make research fmdings available to farmers, who intum, would bring their problems to the notice of agricultural extension Ann Lib Sci Doc

2 INFORMATION NEEDS OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS workers for onward transmission to agricultural scientists and administrators. In order to perform this duty, it is expected that agricultural extension workers could require information to meet their tasks. The objective of this study, is therefore, to ascertain the information needs of agricultural extension workers in Ibadan area, Nigeria. METHODOLOGY In order to attain the stated objective, 73 agricultural extension workers (AEWs) scattered throughout six agricultural organisations in Ibadan area were surveyed in June The agricultural extension workers are distributed among the organisations as shown in Table 1. A questionnaire (Appendix III) was designed for the purpose of collecting data from the 73 agricultural extension workers. A possible list of their information needs in the various aspects of agricultural extension was provided in the questionnaire and AEWs were asked to indicate which of the mentioned information needs were relevant to them. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS The agricultural extension workers were fairly distributed among the three grades of extension workers. The distribution shows that the largest group of AEWs (60.3 per cent) was of the grade of agricultural extension technicians. This. grou~ is!ollowed by the agricultural extension supervisors (26 per cent) while the agricultural extension administrators came a distant third with 13.7 per cent. Table 2 gives a rank order of AEWs expressed information needs. Table 2 reveals that control of major pests was the most frequently mentioned area of agricultural information need. A cross tabulation of control of major pests variable and the variable of designation of AEWs, that is whether the AEW was an extension administrator, extension supervisor or extension technician revealed no positive relationship, which indicates that the control of major pests transcend the designation of AEWs. This area of agricultural information need is closely followed by information on credits and cooperatives (74.0 per cent) and proper handling of insecticides (74.0 per cent). While marketing system of agricultural products (72.6 per cent), field supervision Vol 36 Nos 1-2 March & June 1989 of programme (68.5 per cent) and organ ising farmers' association (68.5 per cent) are other significant areas. In order to determine the core areas of expressed information needs of agricultural extension workers, the mean of expressed information needs was calculated, and found to be 54 per cent. Thus, areas where AEWs requiring information were more than 54 per cent can be termed as core area of expressed information needs. Since AEWs had different educational backgrounds and performed different duties, any agricultural information need variable among the core areas of expressed information needs, that was required by all categories of AEWs would be assumed to be important. This argument can be clarified by performing a cross-tabulation of core areas of agricultural information need variable and designation variable. It was found that no relationship whatsoever existed between the designation of AEWs and these core areas of agricultural information need variables except in the case of field supervision of programme variable, conduct of field trials variable, principles of crop production, socio-e conornic characteristics of.farmers variable as shown in appendix II. Thus, most of the areas of expressed information needs of AEWs were not peculiar to any particular group of AEWs surveyed for the study, which clearly shows that these areas of expressed information needs listed in Table 3 can be constituted as being very vital to agricultural extension workers, which policy makers must pursue vigorously to meet. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Agricultural extension workers expressed a variety of agricultural information needs, while most of these needs are technical, which could only be fulfilled by research scientists. The study also revealed that some areas of their expressed information needs could be met by agents other than scientists. Nine areas of expressed information. needs are very vital to AEWs. It is assumed that information on credit and co-operatives; marketing of agricultural products; legislation of agricultural products; community development; and tax reliefs and tax laws, could be supplied by librarians, journalists, local government officials; etc. Hence, these agencies could be actively involved in the information support agricultural extension workers. 29

3 AINA TABLE 1 Distribution of AEWs by Agricultural Institutions in Ibadan Area Agricultural Institution Absolute Frequency % Relative Frequency % Cumulative Frequency % National Cereals Research Institute, lbadan Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Ibadan National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, lbadan Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Ibadan TABLE 2 A Rank Order of Expressed Information Needs By Agricultural Extension Workers Information Need Relative Frequency % Rank Order Control of major pests Credit and co-operatives Proper handling of insecticides Marketing system of agricultural products Field supervision of programme Organising farmers' association Principles of crop production Conduct of field trials National prices of commodities Legislation on agricultural products Innovation approaches in extension Socio-economic characeristics of farmers Production skills and propagation techniques Community development Tax relief, tax laws Public land, and procedural laws, land act Animal production and Management Setting up agri-business Provision o(electricity supply, pipe borne water etc. Programme planning Experimental-designs and technique Administration and supervision Import duties on farm machinery Data analysis and research writing Others (Group action, modern methods of crop production, communication skills) , Ann Lib Sci Doc

4 INFORMATION NEEDS OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS TABLE 3 Vital Areas of Expressed Information Needs Information Need Level of Significance Control of major pests Credit and co-operatives Proper handling of insecticides Marketing of agricultural products Organising farmers association Community development Tax relief, tax laws * 17* 36* 10* 09* 25* 43* REFERENCES 1. Williams S K T: Structures and organisation of agricultural extension services in Nigeria. Paper presented at the Workshop on Utilization of Agricultural Research in Nigeria, Institute of Strategic Studies, Kuru, Nigeria July , 51p. 2. Akinsorotan A 0: A study of the roles of selected activities of agricultural extension and research liaison services in agricultural institutes in Nigeria. Ibadan University. Ph.D. Thesis, 1981, 350p. 3. Are L: Improving agricultural liaison services with a view to increasing crop production in Nigeria. Bull Rural Economics Sociology 1970, 5(2), Williams S K: Identification of professional training needs of agricultural extension agents in Western Nigeria and a basis for developing college training curriculum. Cornell University. Ph.D. Thesis p. Vol 36 Nos 1-2 March & June

5 AINA APPENDIX I Variable Labels and their Descriptors Vuiable Descriptor com- Designation of AEWs Control of major pests Credit and co-operatives Proper handling of insecticides Marketing system of agricultural products Field supervision of programme Organising farmers' association Principles of crop production Conduct of Held trials National prices of commodities Legislation of agricultural products Innovation approaches in extension Socio-economic characteristics of farmers Production skills and propagation techniques Community development Tax relief, tax laws Public land, and procedural laws Animal production and management Setting up of agri-business Provision of electricity supply, pipe borne water etc. Programme planning Experimental design and techniques Administration and supervision Import duties on farm machinery Data analysis and research writing Others (Group action, modern method of crop production, munication skills) 32 Ann Lib Sci Doc

6 INFORMATION NEEDS OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS APPENDIX II Table of Chi-squared Values for Agricultural Extension Workers ~ Variable (Cross-tab) X Level of Significance 001 By * 001 By * 001 By * 001 By * 001 By By : * 001 By By By * 001 By * 001 By By By By * 001 By By By By * 001 By By * 001 By By * 001 By By By *Not significant at 5% Level. Vol 36 Nos 1 2 March & June

7 AINA APPENDIX III INFORMATION NEEDS OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORKERS General Information 1. Institution '. II. Designation. III. Highest academic qualifications attained in Agriculture (Mark the appropriate box) OND or equivalent Undergraduate Diploma (please specicy). HND B.Sc. or B.A. Postgraduate Diploma please specify:. M.Sc. or MA or M. Phil. Ph.D. Others (please specify):. IV. Academic qualifications in other disciplines beside Agriculture (please specify). V. Highest professional training attained in Agricultural Extension. (Mark the appropriate box). 1. Post primary six plus six months training in Agricultural E~tension. 2. p.ost secondary class four plus six months training in Agricultural Exten- S10n. 3. Post West African School Certificate or equivalent plus six months trainirg in agricultural extension. 4. Integrated courses in agricultural extension prior to academic quali6cations in agricultural extension. 5. B.Sc. Agricultural Extension 6. Postgraduate Diploma in Agricultural Extension 7. M.Sc. Agricultural Extension 8. Ph.D. Agricultural Extension 9. Others please specify:. 34 Ann Lib Sci Doc

8 INFORMATION NEEDS OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS Information Needs The list below gives possible areas where information is needed by agricultural extension staff in order to carry out the tasks of extension work. (Mark as many boxes you agree with). l ll l The conduct of field trials Experimental design and techniques Control of major pests Product skills and propagation techniques Principles of crop production Animal production and management Marketing system of agricultural products Credits and Co-operatives National prices for export commodities Import duties on farm machinery Setting up agri-business Legislation on agricultural products Public land and procedural laws, land act, land acquisition Tax reliefs Provision of infrastructures Community developments Socio-economic characteristics of farmers Organising farmers' associations Proper handling of insecticides Data analysis and research writing Programme planning Field supervision of programme' Innovative approaches in extension Administration and supervision Project implementation Information gathering Others (please specify). Vol 36 Nos 1.2 March& June