The Effect of Participation of Non-Governmental Organisations in Extension Delivery on Farmers’ Accessibility to Information

Abstract

The dissemination of the relevant information for agricultural production is the institutional duty of all stakeholders committed to the development of agriculture of which the agricultural extension agent and his organisation play a prominent role. As a formal public (government funded) institution, the agricultural extension service has been observed to be undergoing a period of change in respect to the provision of material and financial resources to carry extension activities. As a result, many farmers cannot be reached by the government funded extension services. Data analysis from FAO reports indicate that in Africa, two out of every three farmers have no contact with the public extension services. For this reason, many attempts have been made to resolve this issue. Such attempts include improving management of available resources (both material and financial), A seeking external assistance to support government funded extension activities, use of investment fund to finance extension activities and networking with an NGO. This study therefore looked at the option of networking with NGOs as an attempt of improving upon farmers’ accessibility^to information. It is widely recognised that throughout the world particularly in the developing countries NGOs play important roles in agricultural production. These NGOs may be local, national or international. Funding agencies have been observed to see the NGOs in a more favourable light hence their willingness to support activities undertaken by these NGOs. This study, which was conducted in the Dangme West district of the Greater Accra region purposively, sampled one hundred (100) farmers of which fifty (50) have access to an NGO as well as MOFA activities through their extension agents whilst the remaining fifty (50) had access to only MOFA extension delivery activities. To further allow comparison of opinions and to validate the information obtained from the farmers, AEAs who work with the two categories of farmers were interviewed. The study employed interview schedule and questionnaires to both fanners and AEAs to obtain responses to specific variables to meet the objectives of the study. Based on the fanners’ criteria, accessibility to information was discussed under the following: availability of information to farmers, understanding of information received, usefulness/acceptance of information and timeliness of information. Responses analysed for majority of AEAs and farmers indicated there is a significant difference in farmers’ accessibility to information when MOFA is in collaboration with an NGO on one hand and when MOFA is working alone on the other hand. The findings of the study include the fact that MOFA-NGO network was observed to enhance farmers’ accessibility to information in such areas as availability, understanding and timeliness of information disseminated to farmers. It is therefore recommended that there should be the need for more collaboration between financially handicapped government departments and NGOs as a means to help make services offered by such departments more accessible to their clients as well as improving upon the quality of such services.