Effectiveness of agricultural extension services among smallholder farmers in Hoima District

Abstract

This study assessed the effectiveness of agricultural extension services among smallholder farmers inHoima District. The specific objectives of this study were: I) To determine the contribution of agricultural extension services on adoption of new technologies among farmers in Hoima district. II)To examine the effect of agricultural extension services on improved crop yields among smallholder farmers in Hoima district. II)To assess the contribution of agricultural extension services on adoption of agronomic practices among smallholder farmers in Hoima district. A descriptive research was used where both qualitative and quantitative methods were used for data analysis. Questionnaires and interviews were used as major instruments for data collection. The study found out that agriculturalextension services had not significantly improved on adoption of new technologies (r=.744, p<.01). On the influence of agricultural extension services on yield in crops, a bigger proportion of farmers indicated having realized enhanced crop yields and improvement in the quality of crop produce which was a result of better crop technologies and contact with extension service providers through the agricultural extension services. However the study findings show that the contribution of agricultural extension services to improved crop yields was not significant (r= -.643, p<.01). On the effect of agricultural extension services on adoption of agronomic practices, findings indicated that agricultural extension services had not effectively improved on adoption of new agronomic practices (r=.511, p<.01). The overall findings indicate that much as the Operation Wealth Creation Programme seem to have provided support in form of technologies to farmers and communities were well mobilized to participate in training activities offered by extension agencies, agricultural extension services did not seem to improve the quality of extension contact yet the major objective of the approach was to better the quality of technical advice provided and to make extension messages more widely disseminated through the contact-farmer approach. The study recommends that the government should urgently improve the quality of extension services and consequently technology adoption and productivity, through joint efforts by MAAIF, NAADS program managers and the local governments.