PERCEPTION OF POULTRY FARMERS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF EXTENSION SERVICE DELIVERY IN WESTERN ZONE OF BAUCHI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed the perception of poultry farmers on the performance of extension agents on service delivery in western agricultural zone of Bauchi State, Nigeria. Four out of seven local governments areas with high concentration of poultry farmers were purposively selected. The data were collected from 120 poultry farmers using structured questionnaire. The data obtained were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of the study showed that 78.3% of the respondents were married with 72.5% female and having mean age of 35.5. Majority (70%) have farm size below 200 birds, 82.5% of respondents had one form of formal education or the other. About 47% of the respondents had between 6-10years farming experience with 65% of them operating poultry farming as secondary occupation. The study established that the extension agents were perceived by the farmers having adequate knowledge of subject matters (mean = 4.26), good communication skills (mean = 4.45). The result of regression analysis showed that all the predictors yielded significant beta weights with their varied t-values which were all statistically significant (P<0.05) except education level. Age and sex of the respondents had negative but significant effect (P<0.01) on the perceived effectiveness. Based on this study, it was concluded that the extension service delivery in the zone was effective. The recommendation made was that more extension staff should be employed and deployed to poultry production areas.