EVALUATION OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AGENTS’ KNOWLEDGE ON DIGITAL METHOD OF SOIL NUTRIENT ASSESSMENT IN SELECTED SOUTHWEST STATES, NIGERIA

Abstract

ABSTRACT Digital method of soil nutrient assessment offers a transformative approach to optimizing soil fertility management. However, the successful adoption of this technology by farmers is hinged on the capacity of extension agents to effectively transfer relevant knowledge to farmers. This study evaluated knowledge of agricultural extension agents on digital method of soil nutrient assessment in Oyo and Ogun States, Nigeria. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 130 respondents for the study. A structured questionnaire and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) were used to elicit primary data on socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents, awareness of digital method of soil evaluation, pre-test and post-test knowledge of the technology, perception on digital method of soil nutrient assessment, willingness to transfer knowledge acquired on the technology and perceived challenges to the transfer of knowledge acquired on the technology to end-users. An experiment (soil test) was also conducted to compare results of soil analyses using laboratory and digital method (soil app).Data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, means, standard deviations, Pearson's Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and student-test. Results reveal that 66.9% of the respondents were male and 73.1% had BSc/HND as the highest educational qualification with average age, work experience and annual income of 45.9 years, 14 years and ₦1,525,074.86k respectively. Findings further reveal that 41.5% of the respondents were aware of digital method of soil nutrient evaluation, 3.8% had undergone previous training on the technology while none had used the technology. Results of the pre-training assessment show that 33.7% of the respondents had high knowledge of the technology compared to 99.2% with high knowledge for post-test training assessment of the technology. Overall, 76.9% of the respondents had positive perception on the ease of using the technology while 84.6% had a positive perception towards the usefulness of the technology for their field work. Most (76.2%) of the respondents were willing to transfer the knowledge they had acquired during the training to end users. FGD reveals that financial implications associated with the use of digital method of soil nutrient assessment is envisaged as the major challenge towards dissemination of the technology. Student-ttest reveals a significant (p<0.05) difference between pre-test and post-test knowledge of the technology(t=36.198). Standardized soil rating scale show similarities (K=0.3-0.5 cmol/kg, N=0.3-0.3, OC= 0.5-1.5%, pH= 6.8-7.2 and P=24.1-26.0mg/kg) in the results of digital and laboratory methods of soil nutrient assessment (Phosphorus ranges bet. Further, PPMC shows that perception of extension agents had significant (p<0.05) relationship on their post-test knowledge of the technology (r=0.168). The study concluded that the training on digital method of soil nutrient assessment improved extension agents’ knowledge on the technology. Therefore, the study recommended that extension agents should disseminate the knowledge acquired to farmers for improved soil management while they regularly undergo trainings to improve their knowledge of digital agriculture.