ASSESSMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AGENT ON POULTRY FARMERS IN JERE L.G.A

ABSTRACT The study assessed the performance of agricultural extenof poultry feed farmers on the performance of extension agents on service delivery in western agricultural zone of Bauchi State, Nigeria. Four out of seven local governments areas with high concentration of poultry farmers were purposively selected. The data were collected from 120 poultry farmers using structured questionnaire. The data obtained were analyzed using both descriptive and 5 point likert scale. The results of the study showed that majority 57.5% were female and having mean age of between 36-45 years (40%). 60.8% of the respondents were married men and women engaged in farming activities. Majority (40.8%) had secondary education and most of the farmers (42.5%) had a farming experience of 10-20 yearsand also majority (40.8%) had a family size of 6-10 persons and having a farm size below 100 birds (64.2%) and majority (54.2%) raised broilers chicks. The frequency of extension agents visits in the study area indicates that majority (65%) of the farmers stated "No" that they do not have acccess to extension agents, and their mode of contact is mostly (80%) were in persons. Majority (74.2%) of the poultry farmers said "Yes" that most extension agents had knowledge on poultry farmers needs (44.2%) and the most preferred topics of discussions were on diseases control and prevention and poultry feed nutritions and feeding (40%). The study established that the extension agents were perceived by the farmers having adequate knowledge of subject matters (mean = 4.26), good communication skills (mean = 4.45). The finding also states the major challenges to poultry farmers were poor extension contact and services ranked 1st major challenge, followed by high cost of chicks ranked 2nd major problems to the Poultry farmers. High cost of feeds was ranked 3rd major constraints. Based on this study, it was concluded that the extension service delivery in the zone was effective. The recommendation made was that more extension staff should be employed and deployed to poultry production areas.