The effect of communication media on the uptake of agricultural innovations in selected states of Nigeria

Open Access Article; Published online: 21 Sep 2022Purpose Poor uptake of agricultural innovations on weed management practices is a major factor responsible for low productivity. This paper examines how communication media can help improve farmers’ adoption behaviour. Methodology A sample of 725 Nigerian cassava farmers, exposed to agricultural innovation on weed management practices from varying sources, were asked, through a structured questionnaire, to indicate their knowledge, attitudes, and practices of cassava weed management. The responses were compared with a sample of 190 cassava farmers who were not exposed to the information (control group). The data were analysed using frequency counts, percentages, mean, analysis of variance, and multivariate probit regression. Findings Farmers exposed to the agricultural innovation in weed management practices indicated more positive behaviour (57.7%) towards improved weed management practices than the control group (26.8%). The mean knowledge, attitude, practice, and behaviour of the farmers exposed to the innovation through demonstration was significantly higher than for other sources. Practical implications On-farm demonstrations as a means of communication will enhance the uptake and effectiveness of agricultural innovation on weed management practices. Theoretical implications Findings on the influence of communication media on improved weed control and agronomy are significant, given that there is little well-documented data on how communication media enhances technology and innovation adoption in arable crop farming. Originality/value This study generates important data that reinforces the imperatives of communication and media choices, and further underpins the debate that technology alone cannot lead to uptake by farmers but needs to be communicated

Enhancing Smallholder Farmers Income and Food Security through Agricultural Research and Development in West Africa: Impact of the IAR4D1 in the KKM PLS.

The Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) is the approach suggested by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) through the sub Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA CP) to address the acknowledged shortcoming of African Agricultural Research and Development’s (ARD) failure to achieve impact on the farmer’s field. The IAR4D concept is being implemented in three Pilot Learning Sites (PLS) in eight countries across the continent. This paper focused on the Kano, Katsina and Maradi (KKM) PLS of the West Africa aspect of the programme, and made use of a panel data collected from 1800 households at both the baseline and midline surveys organized using the quasi experimental approach with two sets of counterfactuals, viz: the conventional (traditional ARD), and the clean sites where it was assumed there was no ARD at least two years prior to the commencement of the IAR4D. Using propensity score (PSM) and double-difference methods (DDM) to control for project placement and self selection biases, results show that IAR4D increased participants’ income by about 139%, and improved food security by about 229%. The PSM results indicated that participants in the IAR4D will likely be farmers with small household size, and considerable farming experience, with some level of productive assets, who reside near all weather roads, have low level of education and are more likely to reside in the Northern Guinea Savanna agro-ecological zone but less likely from the Sudan Savanna agro-ecological zone. It can be safely concluded from the results that the IAR4D enhances the income and food security status of the participants

Simulated Evidence of Computer Adaptive Test Length: Implications for High Stakes Assessment in Nigeria

Like other African countries, high-stake testing in Nigeria has suffered significant setbacks due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Computerised Adaptive Tests (CAT) is a paradigm shift in the educational assessment that ensures accuracy in ability placements. A survey design was employed to describe the psychometric characteristics of a simulated 3-parameter logistic IRT model designs to support off-site assessments. This simulation protocol involved generating examinee and item pool data, specifying the item selection algorithm and specifying CAT administration rules for execution with SimulCAT. Findings revealed that the fixed-length test guarantees a higher testing precision with an observed systematic error less than zero, a CMAE ranging from 0.2 to 0.3 and RMSE being consistent around 0.2. Findings also revealed that the fixed-length test had a higher item exposure rate which can be handled by falling back on the item selection methods that rely less on the a-parameter. Also, item redundancy was lesser for the fixed-length test compared to the variable-length test. Conclusions are for the fixed-length test option for high-stakes assessment in Nigeria

The Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) and its Impacts on marketed crops: Data Analysis of the Kano-Katsina-Maradi Pilot Learning Site

Several attempts have been made by various governmental, non-governmental and international organisations to address agricultural related challenges in the sub-Saharan African region, but without any meaningful positive impact. In recent time however, FARA came up with a new research paradigm known as the IAR4D (which has now been tested to be a potent instrument to be used in addressing these challenges. This study is therefore conceived to among other things; evaluate the impact of the IAR4D on marketed crop outcomes, making use of the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method of imapct Assessment. The PSM in this study makes use of the counterfactual framework via the IAR4D’s Innovation Platforms. Average marketed values of cereals of the treated (IAR4D farmers) sample due to participation in the IP activities based on the PSM (ATT) was $249 (p<5$ 192 (p<1%) and for fruits/vegetables, $ 229 (p<5%). These values are indication of the impact of the IAR4D intervention on the marketed crop outcomes. This suggests that, agricultural research and intervention programmes that make use of innovation systems approach such as the IAR4D’ Innovation Platforms have a stong positive impact on marketed crop outcomes and therefore have a better potential of having much stronger and positive impact on other livelihood outcomes