An impact assessment of the agricultural extension services to farmers; a case study of Dangme West District, Ghana
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Date
1991-09-03
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Abstract
Agriculture is the backbone of Ghana and about half of the country’s population is classified as farming population. It is therefore necessary to put a lot of effort in developing this sector to the optimum so as to benefit the farming population and the country as a whole. Efforts have been wade to provide credit to farmers, marketing facilities and any other assistance that has been deemed appropriate. It should however be noted that without adequate know how of combining and managing the various factors of production (land, labour, capital) there will not be much improvement in agricultural production. This necessitates educating the farming population on better farming methods so as to achieve the best out to the available resources. Research institutions and extension services are charged with this task. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of the Agricultural extension service in the district.
Data was collected from both secondary and primary sources. Secondary sources included mainly library research and primary sources involved administering questionnaires to farmers and extension workers in the district. Guided interviews were conducted with key persons at the District Agricultural office and the Department of extension services.
The Questionnaires and Interviews were aimed at finding out the activities of the Agricultural extension services, the problems being faced and effectiveness as viewed by both farmers and extension personnel.
the major finding was that although effort has been made by the extension personnel to do a good job, majority of the farmers are not receiving extension services- Inadequate transport facilities and absence of conducive socio--economic framework for extension workers were identified as major causes of inefficiency of the Agricultural extension services. Other findings are also given in the report.
- Based on these findings, recommendations are offered for improving these services in the district and in the country as a whole. The major recommendations are based on improvement of supervision, mobility and morale of extension workers. In order to sensitise farmers and make them more receptive to innovations, community development activities and formation of local organisations have been recommended
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A thesis submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Master of Science in Development Planning and Management, 1991