The Effects of Extension Services on Shallot Farming in the Anloga Area with Respect to the Adoption of Innovations

Abstract

The study examined the innovations introduced into the shallot farming in the Anloga area, and how they were introduced to the shallot fanners. The main aim of this study being to find out the effects o f the extension services on shallot farming in the Anloga area o f the Volta Region. In all, 192 shallot farmers aged between 18-57 years; and six extension agents of the Ministry o f Food and Agriculture (MoFA) were studied. Separate structured questionnaires with both open ended and closed ended questions were used to collect data from the shallot farmers made up o f both extension follower farmers who belong to extension groups and other fanners who do not belong to any o f the extension groups and six agricultural extension agents in the study area. The data collected were analysed to address the main concerns o f the study, viz; i) what the shallot farmers and the extension agents consider as innovations in the shallot farming. ii) the extension methods used in introducing the innovations to the farmers, and the sources from which information about the innovations were delivered to the farmers. iii) the changes or outcomes brought brought about to the fanners as a result 6f the use o f the innovations. Using percentage frequency distributions and cross tabulations, the study evealed that both the respondent shallot farmers and the extension agents in the Anloga area have a common understanding or meaning o f what innovations are. The re su lt Hirther showed that though the shallot farmers were introduced to the innovations from different sources such as extension agents, sellers o f farm inputs, including Farmers’ Services Company (FASCOM), Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), publications, and farmer friends, majority o f them were introduced to the innovations and received information about the innovations from their farmer friends. Also the respondent shallot farmers readily and continuously received information about the innovation more from their farmer friends than from the other sources. The study also showed that verbal explanations by farmer friends and watching the examples (demonstrations) o f farmer friends were the main methods by which the respondent farmers learnt how to use the innovations. In addition, the results revealed that majority o f the respondent shallot farmers preferred the verbal explanation o f their farmer friends than the verbal explanations and demonstrations o f the extension agents. Though the results revealed that the majority o f the respondent shallot farmers agreed that the innovations introduced have brought changes such as increase yields, increase in number o f farm beds cultivated and effective pest control, into shallot farming in the Anloga area, majority o f the respondent farmers would not attribute such changes to extension activities. The main recommendations are that the extension agents and in fact all those interested in introducing innovations to the shallot farmers in Anloga should strive to form functional groups o f farmers with whom they should work. Secondly, local farm research should be encouraged and conducted on the cultivation o f the non traditional food crops and vegetables to generate production (extension) recommendations that could be acceptable to the farmers. Thirdly the use o f the contact farmers (other farmers) should be widened and intensified in order to facilitate the dissemination o f ideas and information among wider spectrum of farmers.