Micro-level evidence of synergies between extension services and small-scale maize farmers in tanzania: what works, what doesn’t work and why?
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Date
2022
Authors
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Publisher
Mwenge Catholic University (MWECAU)
Abstract
The article investigates synergies that exist between extension services and small-scale maize
farmers for enabling them to cope with climate variability and increase yields in Magu District,
Tanzania. The article adopts agricultural extension theory of the Ecological Knowledge System
(EKS) that hypothesizes on transferring knowledge and skills to farmers. A cross-sectional
research design was applied to collect data. The target population was maize small-scale farmers
and the sample size was 70 respondents. Respondents were selected through simple random
sampling. Data collection methods included household survey, focus group discussions, nonparticipant
observations and life history interview. Data collection instruments included
questionnaire, checklists and interview schedules. Qualitative data were thematically analysed
through content analysis and life history trajectory. Quantitative data were analysed by using
descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation for categorical variables of a five-point Likert scale and
multiple linear regressions. The results show that, 78.57% of maize small-scale farmers had
limited access to extension services because there were no synergies with extension-officers’
schedules. Hence, the inferences indicates the value of 0.012 for age, 0.018 for sex, 0.003 for
marital status and 0.01 for education to have a significant difference at a p-value of 0.05 in the
synergy for small-scale maize farmers and the number of sacks produced among households per
year. The major policy implication is that, whether farmers are organic and conventional,
extension agents should customize their services according to their client’s socio-economic
characteristics.
Description
Research Paper
Keywords
Extension services, Maize, Small-scale farmers, Synergies, Tanzania