PERCEPTION OF INSTITUTIONAL AND MANPOWER FACTORS CONSTRAINING AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICES IN BENUE STATE AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

Abstract

The overall purpose of the study was to determine  the perception  of extension staff  of manpower and institutional factors that constrain agricultural extension services in Benue State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (BNARDA). The study was guided by three   research    purposes,    namely:    to   describe    the   respondents’    socio-economic characteristics;  to  determine  the  perception  of  the  extension  staff  on  the  number  of extension staff as a manpower constrain; and to examine the extension staff perception of agricultural  extension  policies  as institutional  constraint.  The  study  was  carried  out  in Benue  State,  one  of  the  North-central  states  in  Nigeria.  The  population  of  the  study comprised  the  BNARDA  extension  staff  at  the  head  quarters,  the  zonal  managers  of agricultural zones in the state, and the BNARDA field extension staff assigned to extension services  in  the  state.  The  multi-stage  sampling  technique  was  used  to  select  2  state headquarters, 2 zones,  18  workers from the 2 zones, 36 blocks and 72 village extension agents.  This  resulted  to  the  total  of  117  respondents  at  different  levels  in  BNARDA extension service as the sample for the study. A set of structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. Percentage, mean and standard deviation statistics were used to analyse the data collected. The results of the study showed that majority of the BNARDA  extension  agents  are  male  (64.2%)  as  against  the  36.8%  who  are  women; majority of BNARDA extension agents are in their middle age with an average mean of

43.5 years; majority of the BNARDA extension agents (58.1%) possess university degree and/or Higher Diploma (B.Sc/B.Ed/HND); as much as 42.7% of the BNRADA staff have been into extension service for 21 years and above, with the mean of 20.5 years indicating that BNARDA staff are well experienced (in terms of the number of years in service) in their duty; and as much as 40.2% of the respondents have worked as BNARDA extension workers for 21 years and above. The mean number of years as BNARDA extension staff by the respondents is 19.5 years. This means that the BNARDA staff are well informed about the activities of BNARDA over many years and are therefore in good positions to provide the relevant information for any improvement of BNARDA. The findings from the study also revealed  that BNARDA  has been unable  to deliver  some  aspects  of its extension service  objectives  because  it  is  lacking  the  necessary  number  of  extension  workers (manpower)  to  carry  out  these  services.  In  spite  of  this,  the  study  revealed  also  that technical knowledge, skills and experiences of recruited extension staff do not constitute constraints to BNARDA’s service delivery. With regard to the influence of structures and implementation of agricultural extension policies as institutional factors that can influence extension service delivery, the findings of the study showed that they constitute part of the institutional constraints that negatively influence the extension service delivery offered by BNARDA  staff.  The  findings  also  revealed  that  there   has  been  consistent  lack  of remuneration and incentives for BNARDA staff and that this has negatively influenced the extension service delivery offered by the BNARDA staff and indeed the purpose for the establishment of BNARDA as an agricultural project aimed at improving the conditions of the people in Benue State. Based on the major findings of this study, it was recommended among  other things,  that as long as  the objectives  of agricultural  programmes  are still considered to be of some importance, the number of BNARDA extension workers helping in the realization of the objectives of agricultural projects need to be increased.

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

CHAPTER ONE

Public agricultural extension organizations in most countries have the task of providing a two way  flow  of improved  technology  and information  between  research and users, primarily farmers. They operate in an institutional environment that includes other public and private organizations active in agriculture (Peterson, 1998).

In Nigeria, as elsewhere, the ministry based extension service was found to be unable to effectively address agricultural and rural development problems (Ladele, 2008). This led to the establishment of Agricultural Development Projects (ADP) which marked the departure of the Nigerian extension system from ministry based extension to project-based extension system. The ADP was sponsored by the World Bank in collaboration with the states and federal governments.

Almost all the states in the country actively implemented statewide ADPs until World Bank finally withdrew funding at the expiry of the project. Development activities of ADPs declined considerably, though at varying degrees across the states, as government could not meet the financial demand of these projects . The earlier experience in the ADPs operation was highly promising that it was thought that most of the traditional problems would have been alleviated. However, the spirit of the early ADP era was not sustained, coupled with the fact that the Training and Visit extension approach had its associated problems. This implied  that  there  are  yet a  myriad  of  problems  of agricultural  extension  begging  for appropriation attention (Ladele, 2008).

Benue   State   Agricultural   and   Rural   Development   Authority   (BNARDA)   was established   in  1986  as  one  of  the  first  generation   seven  Multi-State   Agricultural Development Projects (MSADP) in Nigeria. It was inaugurated as a parastatal under Edit

No.  7 of 1985.  Its operations  were organised  into three core sub-programmes  namely: Agriculture,  Engineering,  and  Commercial  Services.  There  are  also  four  support  sub- programmes   namely:   Administration,   Finance,   Human   Resource   Development,   and Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation. In order to make the impact of BNARDA felt in the whole  state,  it is operated  on the  basis  of  three  agro-development  zones  of  the  state, namely,  Central  Zone with headquarters  at  Otukpo,  Eastern  Zone  with headquarters  at Adikpo, and Northern Zone with its headquarters located at Gboko.

The broad goal of BNARDA is to promote and sustain crop and food production and raise the incomes and standard of living of farmers in Benue State. The overall objectives are:

(a) To assist the small scale farmers increase food production and raise the level  of incomes and living standards.

(b) To focus on agricultural potentials in effectively utilizing intensive programmes of

On-Farm Adaptive research.

(c) To develop an effective unified Training and Visit (T&V) agricultural  extension system in the state.

(d) To establish  and operate  a workable  input procurement  and distribution  system capable of serving the farmers at the right time.

(e) To provide rural infrastructures for sustained development.

The agency was co-financed in the following percentages in accordance with  the loan agreement (BNARDA, 1996a):

(a) World Bank – 66%

(b) Federal Government – 20%

(c) Benue State Government – 14%

The  initial  loan  BNARDA  received  from  the  World  Bank,  otherwise  known  as  the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) was US$15.7 million. It was categorised into expenditure headings as follows:

i. Civil Works and Buildings                               –                      US$5.5 million ii. Plant equipment and vehicles                          –                      US$5.5 million iii. Internationally recruited staff Consultants,

training and studies                                        –                      US$1.2 million iv. Farm inputs                                                    –                      US$1.5 million v. Operational costs and general services            –                      US$2.5 million

Funds disbursed  to BNARDA  by the federal government  and Benue State  Government were as follows:

Table 1: Funding of BNARDA by the state and federal government

Year	BNSG (N)	FGN (N)
1986	1,265,924.00	500,000.00
1987	4,459,788.00	2,055,000.00
1988	5,289,055.00	2,105,000.00
1989	5,310,923.00	1,539,400.00
1990	6,416,670.00	2,500,000.00
1991	6,830,671.00	2,725,000.00
1992	1,325,001.00	3,010,000.00
1993	1,9515,723.00	2,813,875.00
1994	23,819,570.00	4,806,120.00
2003	18,000,000.00	N/A
2004	18,000,000.00	N/A
2005	18,000,000.00	N/A
2006	18,000,000.00	N/A
2007	18,000,000.00	N/A
2008	57,600,000.00	N/A
Total	221,833,325.00	22,054,395.00

[Source: BNARDA (1996); BNARDA (2008); BNARDA (2009)]

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