International Journal of Agricultural Science Research and Technology in Extension and Education Systems
Volume:10 Issue: 1, Mar 2020

The study addressed the economic comparison of the achievements of Fadama III agricultural enterprises in the Niger Delta Area of Nigeria using task-target performance approaches. It aimed at identifying the indicators, tasks and targets and achievement of Fadama III. Some materials used were secondary information collected from the various Fadama III project offices. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select three locations: Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Delta States. The results included: the mean achievement index across the study area as percentage increase in income (163%), crop based activities (132%), fisheries based activities (105%), number of staff trained (162%) and number of monitoring visits to sub projects (149%). However, some indicators did not achieve set tasks and targets as in livestock based activities (51%), agro-processing based activities (13%), marketing equipment (7%), irrigation/drainage equipment (3%) and storage facilities (10%). The three States met their target of 40% increase in farmers’ income by achieving far beyond the set target: Akwa Ibom (155%), Bayelsa (163%) and Delta (170%) Upon contribution into Fadama Users’ Equity Fund (FUEF), achievable were: Akwa Ibom reached 101%, Bayelsa reached 75% and Delta reached 232%. Only Bayelsa State did not achieve the set target of getting up to 100% in FUEF contribution. The study concluded that the economic achievements of Fadama III project activities was commendable. The study recommended that there should be critical followed up for enterprises with proven agro-economic performances with success story of tasks and targets achievement for project sustainability.

The major challenge for the tomato farmers is getting a fair price at the market price given that there are many actors involved in the tomato value chain. Given this situation, this project's goal was to improve communication pathways in dissemination of agricultural market information in tomato value chains in Iringa and Dodoma Regions in Tanzania. The specific objectives were to: identify and assess the status of tomato production and information sharing among the various actors in every node in the tomato value chain; identify the communication and knowledge dissemination pathways in tomato value chain; examine the efficacy of communication and knowledge dissemination pathways in tomato value chain; establish the innovative communication and knowledge dissemination pathways in tomato value chain, and enhance capacity and empower the various stakeholders involved in the tomato value chain. One way of achieving the goal of the study was to come up with an innovative communication pathway that would improve the marketing of tomatoes by directly linking farmers to markets. The study has developed a system called Tomato Value Chain Information System (ToVCIS). The system links famers to different markets in the Tanzania by sending text messages to a control centre which is fed with prices on a daily basis by government employed market monitors in the different towns listed above. Therefore, this paper details on how the system will help farmers through ToVCIS to mitigate vulnerability. Equally, it offers some recommendations for improving the efficiency as well as the sustainability of the system

This paper investigates the effect of women’s involvement in intra-household decision making on crop choice decisions, relative to indigenous food crops combinations by farm households. The study draws on choice theory and estimates a multinomial logit regression model using a survey data of 271 farm households in three districts in Northern Ghana. The paper finds that women’s involvement in crop production decisions at the household level promotes the production of more diverse indigenous food crop mix (pulses, vegetables and oilseeds with cereals). Other factors such as larger land holdings; awareness of the nutritional significance of indigenous food crops in household diets; household size; presence of children; educational status and age of the household head; engaging in nonfarm activities; and distance away from the nearest market affect households’ crop choice decisions relative to indigenous food crop combinations. The paper concludes that women’s involvement in intra-household decisions promotes production of a more diverse indigenous food crop mix in northern Ghana and recommends that women’s participation in intra-household decision making should be supported and promoted, since that could help Ghana accelerate its attainment of food and nutrition security (SDG2).

The study was conducted to analysed the income determinants among farm households in Kaduna state, Nigeria. One hundred and twenty (120) respondents were administered questionnaires selected using simple random sampling. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics like frequency distribution, percentages, mean and inferential statistics like multiple regressions. Results from the analysis revealed that, the respondents were in their productive age, (46 years), mostly males (60%), highly educated, married (50%) with average family size of 7 persons. The analysis also documented that 38% of the respondents earned their income from off-farm activities with an average annual income of N188, 466.50. The major factors that influence income determination were marital status, household size, farm size and credit as these have coefficients that were significant at 1%, 5%, 5% and 1% levels respectively with a high R-2 value of .86. The study concluded that on- farm income is the most important source of income for rural household and recommend that on- farm and non-farm economic activities should be promoted among rural households income improvement. The need for farmers to form cooperative society is important as access to credit significantly influenced income of farmers, this will also enable them to increase their farm size.

The purpose of this research was analysis of the factors affecting the improvement of the cooperatives agricultural education in the Lorestan province, Iran. The population of study consisted of 832 members of agricultural cooperative in Lorestan province, Iran in which 260 people were selected as a sample size, using Krejcie and Morgan table. The results indicate that more than 66.92 percent of the agricultural cooperative members had Diploma and lower level education, while only 4.23 percent of them educated in MSc levels. In order to assess the factors improving the cooperatives agricultural education in the Lorestan province, 22 statements were designed and asked from members to show their opinions. Based on the results the statement “The revision of the content presented, based on members " is allocated as first priority. In order to classify the factors improving the cooperatives agricultural education in the Lorestan province, factor analysis was used. Based on the results, 5 factors explained 72.56 percent of total variance of improving the cooperatives agricultural education in the Lorestan province. These 5 factors were named after loading variables as: facilitating access to resources, entrepreneurship development and success, the development of educational activities targeted, empowering learners, and the development of educational activities for managers.

Agriculture is the backbone of the Sudan economy and represents the biggest industry of the country.  The majority of Sudanese people live in rural areas and depend on agricultural production as the main source of their income and food security.This paper was prepared to study the impact of COVID19 on Sudan agricultural production and marketing in addition to the national policy response to mitigate this impact, and to study the role of agricultural extension to help farmers cope with the Covid19 pandemic era. This study wasdescriptive and mainly based on secondary data. The study showed that agricultural production and marketing in Sudan are affected by the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, and the country is also faced by desert locust problem that may cause considerable losses of both crop production and pasture and shortly along with the pandemic will lead to food insecurity in the country.The study also revealed thatthe government of Sudan has taken some measures to alleviate this situation andthe agricultural extension has a key role to help farmers cope with the pandemic era. It can be concluded that agricultural production and marketing in Sudan are not outside the impact of COVID-19 and consequently Sudan food security was affected by the pandemic. The government of Sudan has taken some measures to alleviate this situation. The agricultural extension has a key role to help farmers cope with the pandemic era.