Quality of Extension Services: A Case Study of Farmers in Amathole

Abstract

The trend in the contemporary society for accountability calls for the evaluation of extension services. Extension service providers should be saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that farmers are continually satisfied with services being delivered. In enhancing farmers’ loyalty and confidence, extension feedback is becoming increasingly paramount. Customer satisfaction survey remains an essential tool for measuring the quality of services and outcome of programmes. The purpose of the study was to determine the quality related to innovation dissemination and teaching as perceived by farmers inthe adoption of new agricultural technologiesin Amathole District Municipality. Thespecific objectives of the study were to: describe how assessments of quality of Extension services differ by gender and the outcomes of the experiences with Extension services. Amathole district Municipality was used as the study population. The entire survey was carried out using a continuous sequence of contacts. A total of 900 useable surveys were pooled for the study. Farmers’ gender was found to be linked with Extension service satisfaction and outcomes. However, females appear to have overall satisfaction with service delivery than males. The implication of this is that males are less likely to cultivate confidence and loyalty in extension services in Amathole district. Following these findings, concerted effort is required to improve extension services in the area by integrating more holistic participatory approaches to enhance equal involvement of male and female farmers in needs assessment, programme planning, designing, delivery and the full recognition of indigenous knowledge system.<br /

Total quality management and innovation

“…Reliability analysis for internal consistency of the scale was undertaken by calculating its Cronbach's α value; classifications of Cronbach's α coefficient indicate strong reliability if the α coefficient exceeds 0.7 (Agholor et al, 2013). Cronbach's α for actual and proposed ratings for the surveyed indicators for this study ranged from 0.728 to 0.963, implying strong internal consistency and reliability.…”

Estimating impact of technological adoption in farming in Bihar: a propensity score matching approach

“…This finding underpins the system concept in innovation adoption and diffusion of agricultural technologies. It is well acknowledged that an extension training service or farmers' field school type of service may emerge as an important mechanism not only for disseminating information about new farming technology, but also crucial for the promotion of newly developed techniques to rural farmers, who otherwise lack the knowledge of and avenues to new technologies on their own as well as in increasing agricultural productivity and farm income (Azikiwe et al ., 2013). However, it is also found that all the farmers did not opt for the service or access the training or extension services.…”

Status of Engagement and Commitment of Faculty Members in Extension Services in BulSU External Campuses: Basis for an Action Plan

“…A successful expansion program begins with the definition of specific objectives, which are the basis for defining work processes and evaluating implementation performance. Responding to the ever-changing demands of many rural communities around the world is an important issue for extension services, as extension workers must have the skills, knowledge and ability to help communities respond to these changes and challenges (Agholor et al, 2013). Mihaylov and Perkins (2014) emphasized that civic action is a joint effort of the government and non-profit organisations for the practical, cultural and democratic strengthening of the community.…”