ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to assess extension service delivery to fish farmers in Oredo Local Government Area, Edo state, Nigeria. Specifically, it described the socio-economic characteristics of fish farmers, identified their sources of information on fish farming, examined fish farmers perception of extension agents in the area of information dissemination, identified extension services utilized by the respondents and identified the constraints of extension delivery to the respondents. The study was carried out in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo state. A multistage sampling procedure was used for the study. In the first stage, purposive sampling was used in selecting six (6) communities within Oredo Local Government Area where fish farming is dominant. Twenty (20) fish farmers from each village were randomly selected from a list of farmers in each village obtained from the Edo State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP). This gave a total sample size of one hundred and twenty (120) fish farmers. The farmers selected were then interviewed using structured questionnaires. Primary data were obtained through the use of a structured questionnaire while secondary data were obtained from already articles, journals and proceedings from the internet. Data was analysed using frequency counts, percentages, mean score and Chi-square was used to find out if fish farmers Socio-economic characteristics were linearly correlated with their access to extension service delivery. xii The results showed that 28.6% of the total respondents of the study were between the ages of 41 and 50 years, 52.9% were male, 53.8% were married, 67.8% were Christians, only 11.8% of the respondents have no formal education as majority even have tertiary education, 82.5% have a farm size of between 0-0.5 hectares, 63.2% have 3 ponds in their farm, 57.1% have 4 to 6 years farming experience, 37.6% made an average of #51,000 - #100,000 monthly and 76.8% sometimes come in contact with extension agents. About 80% confirmed internet to be their source of information, 45.5% perceived patience as the most important attribute in the area of information dissemination , 63.0% indicated How to detect common fish diseases as their most used extension service, 62.2% identified inadequate trained extension staff as the major constraints of extension service delivery. It was concluded that there is no significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics and constraints to extension service delivery. Similarly, there was significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics and utilization of extension services. It was therefore recommended that the mobility of extension agents must be adequately enhanced for effective coverage, and they should also be updated through in-service training on any new technology for quick dissemination.
