Sustainable Agricultural Extension Education for Oil and Gas Producing Communities in Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Imo State, an Oil producing state in Nigeria is bedeviled with incidences of environmental degradation that caused low food production. Oil and Gas producing communities are restive, resulting to conflicts and kidnaps. Oil and gas multinationals introduced agricultural extension services to educate farmers while Agricultural Development Programmes also embark on same. Smallholder farming system affected extension teaching methods of Private and Public sector extensions. The farmers got confused due to mixed extension education techniques. Objective(s): To: streamline extension education system to enhance farmer participation; Develop synergistic system where Private and Public sector extension interact before educating farmers; Develop indigenous agricultural extension system that would consider peculiarities of Nigerian Niger Delta region. Data were collected through semi structured interviews, focused group discussion, personal observations and questionnaire from randomly selected farmers of both sectors and extension officers. Simple descriptive statistics and Likert-type scale were used. Results showed Public sector extension without focused educational programmes. Extension agents of Public sector capitalized on non-functional system to abandon education for Private sector extension that linked extension to oil and gas production. Results revealed most farmers in oil producing communities taking extension as right and could not account for inputs under REFILS. Subject Matter Specialists became money conscious and leaving farmers’ problems unattended. Agricultural Extension sustainability indices of Acceptability, Functionality, Operability and Durability (AFOD) were developed. There is need for a unified Extension Education curriculum to be developed. Extension Education should be subjected to Sustainability test of AFOD. It therefore concluded that Extension systems should be complementary.