TRAINING AND INFORMATION NEEDS OF EXTENSION PERSONNEL IN CLIMATE CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

Abstract

Agricultural extension agents serve as intermediaries between farmers and researchers and hence, play a major role in ensuring good climate change management practices to boost the dwindling food productivity in the nation. It was to this end that the study focussed on the level of competence of extension agents and also, identification of the training and information needs of extension agents in climate change management. The specific objectives were to ascertain the socio-economic characteristics of extension personnel in South-West Nigeria; determine the extension agents’ perceived effects of climate change on agriculture in South-west Nigeria; determine the level of competence of extension agents in the execution of their roles in climate change management; ascertain the usefulness of the extension agents’ sources of information on climate change in South-West Nigeria; and identify constraints of disseminating climate change information to farmers in South-west Nigeria. The study area was the South Western part of Nigeria, a West-African country. Three states were randomly selected from the six states that make up the geo-political zone of the country. The population of the study comprised of all the extension agents (396) in the Agricultural Development Project (ADP) of the selected states. A structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents and only 287 questionnaires were properly filled, returned and used for analysis. The study established the pre-ponderance of males in extension activities (73.2%), a young active work force (ⴳ= 41.3 years), majority married (88.9%) with first degree certificates(80.9%). The mean annual income of the respondents was N410, 587.00. The findings revealed that respondents had noticed a significant effect of climate change in the study area (ⴳ=2.12). The respondents had significant need for information on climate change management, while the top three areas of information need were; knowledge of drought resistant varieties of crops and animals, knowledge of sustainable pest and diseases control and knowledge of afforestation initiatives for climate change. The most useful source of information on climate change management was the electronic media. The extension agents also adjudged themselves to be fairly competent in climate change management revealing a gap to be filled. The training needs identified were: New knowledge and skills in climate risk management, knowledge of strategies of communicating climate change weather forecasts. Findings also showed that most of the respondents (78.7%) had never attended any climate change training but are willing to attend in the future. The constraints to climate change management were inadequate funding, incorrect prediction of weather forecasts and lack of in-service training. There was a significant relationship between age and work experience (P=0.000) and the level of competence (P=0.000). The years of work experience had a significant relationship with information needs (P= 0.011). Analysis of Variance revealed significant differences in the perceived effect of climate change across the states (F = 56.732, P = 0.000), information needs of the extension agents across the states (F = 12.039, P = 0.000), extension agents’ perception of the usefulness of the source of information on climate change (F = 15.486, P = 0.000), importance of climate change management skills (F = 9.926, P = 0.000) and constraints to climate change management (F = 23.947, P = 0.000). The study therefore recommended that there should be collaboration between universities, research institutions, and extension organisations to come up with a module to serve as a guide in conducting in-service training on the identified needs. The funding of extension organisations should be improved upon as it was identified as a major constraint