ABSTRACT:The study evaluated the activities of Extension agents on Agricultural Loans and Inputs Supply Programme participant farmers' rice output/income. Data were collected with the aid of questionnaire from 60Extension agents (participating in the ALIS programme) randomly selected from 6 LGAs (where the programme is being implemented) of Delta State. Data were also collected from 80 participant and 80 nonparticipant farmers' of the programme. Results of data analysis reveals that all the Extension agents are males and are married. Most (40%) of them belong to the age bracket of 30 -39 years, with a high proportion (48.3%) of them having HND/first degree and a good number of them (28.3%) having 5 -6 years experience in the ALIS programme. Major functions carried out by the Extension agents in the ALIS programme were advisory role (2.75), training farmers on inputs use (2.67) and demonstrating inputs use (2.65). The roles of the Extension agents on the farmers made a significant difference in out (176.25kg) and income N53,468.75 in favour participants. Important inputs provided by the extension agents are farm size, improved seeds and farm chemicals like fertilizer and urea. Some important constraints facing the programme according to the Extension agents were limited coverage of farmers (3.23), wrong selection of programme participants (3.22), late delivery of inputs (3.15) and poor funding of the programme (3.05). Based on findings the study recommends that efforts should be made to deliver inputs promptly to farmers, ensure all necessary inputs are timely made available to farmers and in adequate quantities, there is need to ensure that only those farmers who depend on rice farming are selected to participate in the programme. © JASEM

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This study examined the determinants of yam farmers’ access to ICT tools in agricultural services delivery and production in Delta State, Nigeria. It identifies the agricultural services and the ICT tools available to yam farmers, determined the roles of ICT tools in improving yam farmers’ access to agricultural services and examined the determinants of yam farmers’ access to ICT tools, among others. The sample size was 176 respondents made up of 88 farmer adopters and 88 non-adopters of ICT tools in yam production. Data was analyzed with the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that services on: transportation/distribution of farm products (93.18%), marketing (92.05%), crop production (87.50%), advisory (80.68%), farm management (71.59%) and finance (70.46%) were services offered to the farmers by the extension agents. Common available ICT tools to the farmers are mobile phones (95.45%), television (85.23%) and radio (80.68%). Farm size (mean = 3.42), level of farm income (mean = 3.41), farmers educational level (mean = 3.12) and area where farmers stay (mean = 2.98), were found to be major determinants of farmers access to ICT tools. Farmers’ high level of access to ICT tools have played significant roles in improving their access to agricultural services, production and farm income. There was significant difference in farm income (N105,113.63) in favour of adopters over non-adopters of ICT tools in yam production. The study thus recommended that government should make the ICT tools more available to the farmers so that their income can be boosted.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) is a modern means of disseminating agricultural extension services to farmers. Extension agents’ adoption of ICTs in the dissemination of agricultural extension services to farmers in Delta State, Nigeria as a paradigm shift was examined in this study. The objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the extension agents, identify the ICTs that are within the extension agents reach for use, ascertain respondents’ level of adoption of ICTs and factors limiting extension agents’ effective use of ICTs in disseminating agricultural information to farmers in the study area. Fifty-eight (58) respondents were randomly selected from Delta North and South agricultural zones of the State. Descriptive and inferential statistics were respectively used to analyze objectives and hypotheses of the study. Results revealed that the average age, household size and work experience were 43.28 years, 6 persons and 13.05 years, respectively. The respondents’ level of adoption of ICT tools was high (72.41%). Lack of funds, on-the-job training, supportive services from government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), electricity supply and technical skills were of the serious constraints limiting effective use of ICTs by the extension agents. Other limiting factors were high cost of the tools and poor network coverage. Socio-economic variables like sex, age, educational level and work experience were found to have significantly influenced on the level of adoption of ICTs in dissemination of agricultural information to farmers. The study also revealed a significant difference between respondents with high from those with low level of adoption of ICTs. The study recommended an improvement in electricity supply to those areas where it is epileptic and the push of network providers to make network available to those areas where such is lacking or poor.