ABSTRACT
NAERLS
has the national mandate of coordinating and planning agricultural
extension activities in the country, as well as providing leadership
role in the management of adopted villages. But in 2007, the Federal
Government declared a state of emergency on the nation's agricultural
sector, basing this on ineffective extension service provision and very
low agricultural productivity due to poor production practices. Thus,
this study examined the extension communication strategies of NAERLS,
using its adopted villages as case study, and in the light of Federal
Government's drive to improve agricultural productivity nationwide
through a communication-anchored agricultural sector. The aim of the
study was to enhance agricultural productivity in NAERLS adopted
villages through the deployment of an effective communication strategy.
It employed both quantitative and qualitative methods to study 104
respondents, comprising 82 farmers from three selected adopted villages
(Tudun Iya in Katsina State, Nwogi in Niger State, and Okolo in Oyo
State), 20 staff of NAERLS, and 2 policy makers. The instruments for
data collection were 3 sets of questionnaire, 2 sets of Key Informant
Interview and naturalistic observation. The questionnaire items were
designed in three-point Likert scale of degree of Highly, Moderately,
and Poorly; or of frequency of Always, Occasionally, and Rarely, with
statistical values of 3, 2 and 1 respectively. Thus the weighted mean
value was calculated to be significant at 2.0. The results showed, among
others, that NAERLS practised group, mass-mediated and individual
extension communication approaches, but with the group approach being
the foremost; access to NAERLS communication channels was low for the
selected villages; however, it was higher in Tudun Iya than in Okolo and
Nwogi. Communication approaches, channels and messages were also found
to be uniformly used for the various adopted villages without
consideration for audience peculiarities and needs. The study also found
that impact of the Institute's extension activities on farmers'
productivity low; and that farmers were not adequately and sufficiently
involved in the agricultural communication matters and initiatives.
Moreover, the study found significant level of communication barriers to
technology adoption in the selected villages. Other barriers to
technology adoption included the top-down approach to agricultural
technology development, and issues regard to insufficient funding and
government's policy inconsistency. Despite the finding on adequate level
of trust by farmers for the competency of NAERLS as agricultural
communication partner, the absence of a working strategic communication
guide created an apparent gap between NAERLS extension tenets and actual
field practice; this gap led to the production and dissemination of
media packages in a largely unorganized form. Based on the findings, a
participatory communication strategy was designed for the study
institute for deployment in the study location to enhance agricultural
productivity. The strategic communication design was done with active
participation and contribution from key stakeholders. The study
therefore recommended, among others, that NAERLS should deploy the
communication strategy designed by the study to enhance agricultural
productivity in the study locations; and that the Federal Government,
through the working of key stakeholders, should formulate a pluralistic
policy that will legislate for the leadership, funding and coordination
of the nation's extension activities.