Abstract:
Despite concerted effort at improving the extension delivery in Ghana, the performance
of the Front Line Staff of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s Extension Services has
been lower than expected. It is expected that among others, appropriate training will
enhance their performance. However it is not clear what the nature and content of such
training should be. The study therefore was to find out whether the content of training
provided to the extension workers affected their performance and if so which content is
likely to enhance performance. The study was guided by the assumption that farmers
have needs, some of which are their training needs. That for the extension workers to be
able to provide appropriate training to farmers, they should be trained in those needs.
This is likely to enhance extension worker performance.
A survey was conducted in the Suhum Kraboa-Coaltar and West Akim districts of the
Eastern Region of Ghana using a checklist and survey questionnaire to collect
information from the FLS and their farmers. Data collected included the content of
training FLS have received, needs of farmers and the nature and content of messages
farmers have received from their FLS, and their adoption behaviour.
It was found that there was no difference between the farmers of FLS who have received
wide and those with narrow knowledge with regard to adoption. However , farmers
tended to adopt technologies in which the Front Line Staff received adequate training
Personal characteristics such as educational background, total farmland available, and
purpose of farming are important factors affecting adoption patterns. The findings indicate that the span of knowledge received by the FLS during training is not an
important determinant of adoption behaviour of fanners, rather it is important that Front
Line Staff are provided wit in-depth training in activities that farmers are engaged in.
It is concluded that training in a wide range of subjects without going into details would
not enhance adoption. This is critical, especially in the Training and Visit (T&V)
management system where there is regular training. Such training should aim not only to
increase span but in addition the content should be detailed. Personal characteristics such
as educational background, access to land and purpose of farming are likely to be
important basis of demarcating recommendation domains for extension messages.
