Relevance of Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education (SAFE) Programme Competency on Agricultural Extension Service Delivery in North-Western Nigeria

Abstract

The study assesses the relevance of Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education (SAFE) programme competency on agricultural extension service delivery in North-Western Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 225 samples of the study. Two categories of respondents were used for data collection namely: SAFE beneficiaries (212) and lecturers’ in the departments of Agricultural Economics and Extension/Extension and Rural Sociology/Extension and Rural Development (13) of the three SAFE participating Universities in North-Western Nigeria. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics (such as percentage counts, means, standard deviation and ranking) and inferential statistics (Logit regression). The study revealed that job competencies identified were highly relevant to extension service delivery and the SAFE beneficiaries were competent enough to handle any agricultural extension role. More so, the beneficiaries had reported a lot of benefits derived from the programme such as increased extension knowledge, field demonstration, job integrity, increased salary and self-esteem. The study established significant influenced of the SAFE beneficiaries’ selected demographic characteristics on their job competency. The study concludes that SAFE programme had positively influenced job competencies and a lot of benefits are derived by the agricultural extension workers as a result of programme participation. The study further recommends that there is need for more female incorporated in agricultural extension services and inclusiveness of the SAFE programme curricula across the Universities in Nigeria.