Effects of extension services on cassava production in Akoko North-East of Ondo State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study examined the effect of extension services on cassava production in Akoko North-east Local Government in Ondo State, Nigeria with specific objectives to: determine the factors influencing the adoption of extension services provided and identify the constraints faced by cassava farmers in the study area. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select 108 respondents who were basically cassava farmers and primary data collected using structured questionnaire complemented with interviewed scheduled. Data collected were analyzed both with descriptive and inferential statistics. Majority (80.6%) of the respondents were above 40 years imploying that they are in their most productive state, while 82.4% are married, 8.3% single and 9.3%. More so, about 74.1% of the respondents attained secondary education while 25.9% attained primary education in the study area. Results of the logistic regression showed that adoption level of technology on cassava is inversely influenced by household size (X2) and labor cost (X9) while educational level (X5) and experience (X6) had direct and significant relationship with adoption level. However, marital status (X4) and cooperative membership (X7) was found to affect extension service on cassava production positively and significant at 10% and 1% respectively. Some of the constraints include inadequate capital (50.9%), pest and diseases (25.9%), transportation (11.1%), etc. It was recommended that provision of improve cassava cutting, pest and diseases resistance varieties, transportation and extension delivery services will go a long way in increasing cassava production in the study area.