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The effects of leader involvement in extension program development
Abstract
This study was designed to assess the effects of farmer involvement in extension training/program planning and the willingness of the farmers to participate in program activities when they were mounted; that participation was compared with participation of other peer farmers in the prototype areas as well as peers from two areas outside the prototypes. A questionnaire, developed by the researcher, was used to collect data to respond to both the research questions and the null hypotheses formulated for the study. One hundred and fifty farmers were interviewed. Sixty of the farmers were farmer-leaders who were trained by the previous Farming Systems Research Project; thirty were farmer-leader trained prototype area peers; 30 were untrained prototype peers; and the final 30 were peers from outside the prototype areas. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSSX). Frequencies and percentages were used to analyze demographic data. One-way analysis of variance and the Pearson correlation were used to test the significance of stated research questions and null hypotheses. The following conclusions are based on the data analysis and the findings: (1) Farmer involvement in training and planning was closely related to participation in programs. (2) There was a great deal of variation among respondents' educational levels. All subjects who had gone beyond grade 12 were situated outside the prototype areas; no farmer-leaders had gone beyond grade nine. (3) Farmer-leaders were willing to put what they had learned in their training into practice through instructing, demonstrating, and conducting field days for other farmers. (4) The production of the Leribe untrained peers was higher in most essential commodities such as maize and sorghum; they mounted more field days for other farmers; and they also produced more commercial products. (5) Farmer-leaders produced higher yields and engaged in training farmer peers more than other farmers in the prototype areas.
Subject Area
Vocational education
Recommended Citation
Matli, Musi Teboho, "The effects of leader involvement in extension program development" (1989). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8918555.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8918555