Assessing the Effectiveness of Selected Aspects of Extension Approaches Across Different Agro Ecological Zones

Aims: Understanding how different agricultural organisations implement extension approaches across different Agricultural Ecological Zones is very critical for the success and impact in agricultural sector. This paper therefore assessed the effect of Agro-Ecological Zones on implementation of agricultural extension approaches to provide an insight into how to improve dissemination of improved technologies.

Study Design: A cross-sectional survey combining quantitative and qualitative data collection methodologies was used.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in six counties of western Kenya: Nyamira, Kisii, Homa-bay, Migori, Kisumu, and Siaya counties. The study was conducted between September to December 2019.

Methodology: 12 agricultural institutions within the study area were sampled. A multi stage random sampling technique was used to identify 492 respondents comprising; 12 head of agriculture in the institutions, 120 extension personnel and 360 household heads across different Agricultural Ecological Zones (AEZs). Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The inferential statistics were set at the 0.05 level for significance. Kruskal Wallis test and Dunn-Bonferroni Post Hoc test were used to test significant differences on the implementation aspects of the extension approaches across the different AEZs.

Results: Climatic conditions, average age, land size, and value of household assets as factors of AEZs influenced how various aspects of agricultural extension approaches were implemented. Level of implementation of aspects influenced uptake of agricultural technologies. Kruskal Wallis test result (H (5) = 126.679, p value < 0.001) indicated that there were significant differences in the level at which smallholder farmers improved their agricultural practices in different AEZs.

Conclusion: For effective dissemination of agricultural technologies, farmer situation, specifically agro ecological zone must be taken into consideration when recommending extension dissemination approaches to be used. Multivariate analysis needs to be done to inform how to implement various aspects of extension approaches to achieve optimum results in terms of farmer behaviour change.