Role performance of extension agents in post harvest activities of rice in southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

The paper assessed role performance of Extension agents (EAs) in Post-Harvest Activities (PHAs) of rice in Southwestern Nigeria. It specifically described the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents; identified the roles performed by respondents in PHAs of rice; determined the level of roles performance in PHAs of rice and identified constraints associated with their role performance in rice PHAs. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to select all (124) EAs across the selected States in the study areas. Primary data were collected through questionnaire. Frequency counts, percentages and means were used summarised the data collected while Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Chi-square analyses were employed to draw inferences on the hypothesis. The result showed that majority (84.7 % and 96%) of the respondents were males and married respectively, with a mean age of 49.1± 7.3years. Formation of rice farmers’ into cooperative groups (mean = 4.49) and provision of information on best time to harvest rice (mean = 4.48) were the foremost roles performed by respondents, whileinadequate staffing (mean=2.64) and poor funding of extension (mean = 2.46) were the majority constraints to the extension agents’ role performance.Sex (χ2 = 11.115) and secondary occupation (χ2 = 24.83) had significant association with role performance while significant relationship existed between years of working experience (r = 0.661), years of residence (r = 0.503 and role performance of extension agents. The study concluded that majority of EAs had average level performance in PHAs of rice.