Abstract
Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is an important regional food source, providing food and income to over 30 million farmers, processors, and traders in Nigeria. Extension programs support awareness and interest in new technologies; they facilitate the adoption and adaptation of new approaches to crop production, post-harvest processing, and marketing. Extension can be understood as an intermediary or catalyst in the dissemination of information to rural farmers. This study analyzed the effect of cassava farmers’ exposure to extension on a broad measure of cassava technology adoption, while considering the influence of some individual and farm characteristics as control variables. Data were obtained from personal interviews with sample of 952 households conducted in southern Nigeria. Results show a relationship between extension exposure and technology adoption. Farmer-to-farmer interaction played the greatest role in diffusion of the technologies. Interactions with extension agents were low, suggesting that adoption of improved technologies could be enhanced by improved regular contact with extension information. The results underscore the importance of farmer-to-farmer interaction processes that often overshadow extension assistance in supporting and guiding the use of production technology. The conclusions consider some implications for 21st century extension. Key words: Extension exposure, technology adoption, cassava production.
Highlights
Agriculture occupies a key position in the Nigerian economy judging by its critical role of providing food security, provision of employment, revenue generation and provision of raw materials for industrial development (Ajala et al, 2013)
Data were drawn from a survey carried out in selected cassava production areas conducted by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in 2010 (Abdoulaye et al, 2014)
The Enumeration areas (EAs) that formed the sampling frame were obtained from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which uses the 2003/2004 master sample frame of the National Integrated Survey of Households (NISH)
Summary
Agriculture occupies a key position in the Nigerian economy judging by its critical role of providing food security, provision of employment, revenue generation and provision of raw materials for industrial development (Ajala et al, 2013). Multiple regression was used to determine the relationship between the dependent and independent variables which estimates the extent to which extension exposure, technology awareness and technology adoption were correlated with the individual and farm characteristics of the respondents.
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