INTEGRATING AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROGRAMMES FOR IMPROVED FOOD PRODUCTIVITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH AMONG RURAL FARMERS IN BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined how the integration of agricultural education and training programmes would improve food productivity among rural farmers in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The study was guided by three (3) research questions. It adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population was all peasant farmers in Bayelsa State. A simple random sampling technique was adopted to select 124 female and 102 male from five local government areas in the State. The instrument for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire designed in a 4-point rating scale of agreement. The instrument was scrutinized by two experts. The reliability of instrument was established using cronbach alpha reliability which yielded an index of 0.88. Data was analyzed using mean and standard deviation with a benchmark mean value of ≥ 3.00. Findings from the study revealed that training programmes such as farmer-to-farmer training, field-school programme and enterprise training would enhance quality of information of farmers thus
improving their agricultural productivity, enhance adequate adoption of new farming techniques, enhance smallholder farmers’ managerial skills and improves farmers’ skills in control of farm diseases. The study therefore recommends that field school approach needs to be studied in depth in different areas of agriculture by extension ofcers and other stakeholders as it has the potentials for increased production and awareness of agribusiness training should be made to all stakeholders in agriculture from the lowest cadre of both extension and research ofcers to policy makers.