EFFECT OF FARMER FIELD SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ON FARMERS PRODUCTION IN OSUN STATE

The study examined the effect of Farmer Field School (FFS) activities on farmers’ production in Osun state, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 154 respondents for the study. A well-structured and validated interview schedule was used to collect primary data for the study. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools such as frequency counts, percentage, mean and standard deviation while inferential statistics (correlation and chi-square) were used to test the hypotheses. Results show that the mean age of FFS graduates in the study area was 46.8±9.5 years, majority (77.0%) were males, and spent an average of 6.7 years in formal school. Also, 75.3% had farming as primary occupation and their mean years of farming experience was 23.7 years. Also, majority (91.6%) were involved in harvesting, 80.5% in site selection, and 76.0% in seed planting production activities during FFS training. Majority (96.1%) of the respondents were exposed to discussion, 94.2% to observation and 90.3% to experience sharing on communication and educational activities. There were positive and significant relationships between accessibility to NPFS loan (χ 2 =11.950, P≤0.05); education/ communication activities (r= 0.250; P ≤ 0.05); constraint (r=--0.547; P ≤ 0.05), benefits derived by graduates of FFS (r=0.218; P ≤ 0.05) and their level of production. Since there was improvement in the farmer’s level of production before and after attending farmer field school, therefore FFS should be recommended for other farm enterprises to achieve the goal of Agricultural Transformational Agenda (ATA) which is to improve agricultural productivity and value chain. Keywords : Farmer Field School, agricultural communication, farmer’s production, Agricultural transformation Agenda