Agric extension services: From too few to none at all

 Nigerian small scale farmers lag behind because of their inability to access extension services writes Josephine Okojie.

Despite the potential of Nigeria’s agricultural sector to diversify the economy, it is still fraught with a lot of challenges. One of such challenges is the collapse of agricultural extension services which has been seriously weakened by inadequate funding to support field extension services, poor roads and policy flip flop by various governments.

The inability of farmers to access vital information that is beneficial to them and inadequate dissemination of information by extension agents have reduced agricultural productivity in the country for decades.

Nigerian farmers are now lagging behind because of their inability to raise productivity and improve yield per hectare due to the failures of extension service delivery in the country.

 

Agricultural extension service is the application of scientific research and new knowledge to agricultural practices through farmers’ education. The extension agents function as the link between farmers, research institutes and the government.

 

“Since I started farming more than 10 years ago, extension agents have only visited my farmland twice,” says Samuel Sanondo, a farmer who farms 15 hectare of maize and yam in Donga local government area in Taraba State.

 

“I still farm with the farming methods my father taught me before he died more than 20 years ago. I love to use modern technologies but I don’t know where to buy them and how to operate them. The extension service agent that is supposed to teach us modern technology hardly visits my farm,” Sanondo said.

 

Sanondo’s case is similar to farmers across the country as the extension service system has been marred with a lot of challenges especially in the area of manpower.

For more than a decade, there has been no recruitment of extension agents in most state of the federation. This has reduced the number of extension agents; with many approaching retirement age.

The issue of manpower is a very big problem. There has been no recruitment of extension agents by some states since the World Bank grant was exhausted in the 80’s,” says Mohammed   Khalid Othman, assistant director, National Agricultural Extension Research Liaison Services (NAERLS). “We have a situation where some states have one agent serving 2,000 farming families.”

According to Othman, the country cannot improve farmers’ productivity when the ratio of extension agents given to farmers is as high as what we have currently in the country especially at a time were the government wants to diversify the economy through agriculture.

In trying to address the issue of limited extension agents, some states have resulted to picking cooperatives and association heads and educating them on latest technologies and information necessary for the farmers in their communities who in turn are expected to pass the information to them under their cooperatives and associations.

Abdul Sule, a tomato farmer in Alabata, Odeda, Ogun state says “any time the extension agents come, they pick selected farmers for training so that those farmers can come back and teach us what they have learnt but most of the farmers come back and are unable to explain anything to us.”

“The reason they have to pick our association heads to educate them instead of visiting our farmlands is because of how bad our roads are,” Abdul said. 

After few days of rain many roads leading to our farms are totally impassable cutting off some communities completely. Even when commuters offer to pay higher fares, many commercial motorists refuse to go to such communities for fear that their vehicles wouldn’t make it.

Nigeria’s core stock of infrastructure is estimated at only 20-25 per cent of GDP, compared with 70 percent for other middle income countries of its size, leaving a gaping infrastructure deficit of $300bn, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Abdul also stated that he normally listens to radio stations for information but he does not really understand what they are saying most times. “This also affects harvest because when new technologies that will improve our productivity come we get to know about it very late,” he added.

Abdul’s case is not different from many farmers across Nigeria. The extension service system has been marred with a lot of challenges especially in the area of feedbacks as majority of farmers depend on radio stations for their source of information without necessarily being able to express their understanding, experience or opinion about an issue that concerns them, while the extension agents where these farmerswould have found solace are nowhere to be found.

 

Research institutes in Nigeria have blamed the government for the gap that exists between the farmers, research institutes and extension service. The government needs to address the problem with the delivery of extension services in other to boost farmers’ productivity. Government has to make provision for bridging the gap between the lab and the farms, they complain.

 

“When we come up with new technologies which should improve farmers’ productivity, it never gets to the farmers because the extension agents fail to transfer these technologies to them. And this is the case because the extension workers are not just there. The issue is because of the failed system and the gap created by the government,” Celestine Ikuenobe, director of research, Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) said in a telephone interview with BusinessDay.

Ikuenobe says that the agents are not adequately funded and lack motivation. He stressed the need for government to address these issues of extension service delivery if the economy will be diversified through agriculture.

 According to a study conducted by Lucia Omobolanle Ogunsunmi, principal research fellow, Institute of Agric Research and Training, Obafemi Awolowo University, “74.4 percent of the farmers surveyed had no contact with extension services for three years while only 4.8 percent were visited within a year. Only 27.4 percent were visited or had contact with extension services for 1-4 times a year.”

In view of this shortfall, experts underscore the need for private-sector participation in the funding and delivery of agricultural extension services so as to meet the needs of the farmers. They argue that agricultural extension services have been dominated by the Agricultural Development Programme in Nigeria for a long time.

The experts insist that the traditional extension services, linked with production objectives and blanket recommendations, can no longer meet farmers’ expectations.

They stress that pragmatic efforts should be made to encourage the private sector to provide agricultural extension services, while the government can play a strategic role by identifying gaps in the provision of such service.

 “The government need to liaise with the private sector on extension services otherwise extension service delivery will continue to be inefficient,” says Abiodun Olorundenro, chief executive officer, Green Vine Farms.

 Olorundenro says: “If Nigeria will reduce dependence on food imports, revive rural economies, boost farmers’ productivity and create jobs for the youth, it must ensure that extension services are efficient and effective.”