Rice Farmers Preferred Extension Teaching Methods for Capacity Building in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the preferred teaching methods for sustainable capacity building, described the socio-economic characteristics, identified the teaching methods, investigated the characteristics of the methods essential for capacity building and identified the enhanced capacities of rice farmers due to the extension methods. A three stage sampling procedure was used to select 130 small scale rice farmers used as respondents. The results revealed that the average age of the farmers was 38.97 years. The commonly used extension methods include farm and home visits, Management Training Plot, Small Plot Adoption Techniques, On Farm Adaptive Research, Farmers Field Days and radio.  Most (75%) of the rice farmers preferred MTP due to its size capable of arousing interest of farmers, participatory  (67%), acquisition of new skills (72%) and recouping cost of implementation (61%) for continuous capacity building. Many, 65%, 61%, 71% and 59% of the respondents reported that MTP has enhanced their capacity building in integrated pests and weed management (IPM and IWM), appropriate time for fertilizer application and plant spacing respectively. Result of Pearson Correlation statistics established a significant relationship between MTP and up scaling of capacities of rice farmers in IPM (r = .503, p < 0.05) while the linear regression analysis indicated that MTP significantly contributed to capacity building of respondents (t= 4.542P<0.05). It was recommended that extension organizations should promote the use of MTP as it allows farmers to acquire skills in existing and emerging rice production innovations more so that MTP is participatory in approach.  Key words: Management Training Plot, integrated pest management, farmers’ participation, arousing interest, recouping of cost