By Ani, Anthony Okorie
Thie study asaeeaed the role parformanc~ of f i e l d
exteneion agent8 o r the Abie and Ima Agricultural
Developmmnt P r o j e c t e (ADPe). The purpoee waa t a
det~rminI3 the actual roles and l e v e l o f per?ormartce uf
these roles by these agents.
The atudy covered three a f the s i x s g r i c u l t u r a l
ronea o f the former I n o S t e t a - r a p r e s s n t i n g twa zones
(Af i kpo end Umuahia) from Rbia S ~ a t ee nd one zone (Dk l q u e )
from the present Imo Eitete. The subjecte of' the study
wers 86 f i e l d extenelon agents, repres~nting approximately
50 p e r cent a f the t a t a l papulation of' the ? l e l d a q e n t ~
Prom t h e three zanea; tha whole 34 block e x t e n e i a n
supervisors Pram the three ronea who d i d the per7armancu
aeaeasment a f the f i e l d agent9 uarc Used.
V a l i d a t e d q u e s t l o n n a 2 ~ e e were uaed i n collecting
dsta from the reapondenta. P ~ r c s n t a g e e , mean acoree,
rank ordar, c o r r e l ~ t i a n cauFflcienta and t - t e s t ware the
~ t e t l s t l c a l technlquee uead i n ~ n a l y e k n g thc dmts.
The f indlnga i n d i c a t e d t h ~ tt h e maen ege o f t h e
f'ield extenafon agentm Mae 35.4. yeera and that 55.8 ,%
of them had Higher Nstianal Diploma I n A g r l e u l t u r ~ . The
r o l e performance effactiuene~s oQ the f i e l d agent8 wan
avaluated baaed on thelr level o f perTarrnence: of sixteen
v i i
normative extension r u n c t l o n a end desireble pereanal
char s c t e r lat i ca, Re e u l t e gnttan based o n t h m~ e an
respansea aQ these agents to the n a r m e t l v e e x t s n a l o n
f u n c t i a n s , ahowed t i ~ a tt h e f i e l d a g e n t a had p e r f o rme d
we11 i n t h i a r e g a r d .
I t was found t h a t poor transport f a c i l i t l e e ,
f requent t r a n s f ~ ro f star?, l u c k o f c r e d i t P a c i l i t i e e
f o r tarrnera, I l l i t e r a c y of' farmers, work avgrload on
e x t e n e l a n a t a r f , lack o f i n c e n t i v e 8 Par s t a f f / l a c k ur'
p r o m o t i o n pmspe c t a Tar a S a f f , amang ~ t h e rf a c t o r s cnuld
afQect r o l e performance of field e x t e n e l o n ngwnte,
Recommendatlona baaed an t h e P i n d i n g e i n c l u d e ecnonq
o t h e r s , t h a t t h e a d m i n i a t r e t i a n oP t h e ADPs a h o u l d create
jab deaign6 t h a t take I n t o c o n a l d e r a t i o n human need8 and
m o t l v a t i o n . T h i s c o u l d be e c h i e v e d by t a k i n g meetmure8
t h a t would improve the working c o n d i t i a n e o f the r i e . l d
mqente t h r o u g h prauleion o f t r a n e p o r t and o t h e r ell~waneea.
S i r n l l a r l y , e t t e n t i o n should be directed t n auch areas as
r e c r u i t i n g and t r a i n i n g o f more field extension aqenta.
T h i s will make it p a s s i b l e Tar a good number o f Perm~rs
t a be r e a c h ~ da nd e d u c a t e d . A l e o , f i e l d e x t e n a i a n e q ~ n t