Thesis Abstract

Abstract
This research aimed to identify and analyze the professional competencies required by Nigerian agricultural extension supervisors to effectively perform their roles. The study utilized a mixed-methods approach, combining surveys and interviews to gather data from a sample of agricultural extension supervisors in Nigeria. The findings revealed a diverse range of competencies essential for the successful performance of agricultural extension supervisors in the Nigerian context. These competencies included technical knowledge in agriculture, communication skills, problem-solving abilities, leadership skills, adaptability, and cultural sensitivity. The study highlighted the importance of continuous professional development and training programs to enhance the competencies of agricultural extension supervisors. The research also emphasized the need for policymakers and stakeholders to prioritize the development of these competencies to improve the overall effectiveness of agricultural extension services in Nigeria.

Thesis Overview

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY

Nigeria (/naɪˈdʒɪəriÉ™/ (listen)), officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a sovereign country located in West Africa bordering Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, and Benin in the west. Its southern coast is on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. Nigeria is a federal republic comprising 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Abuja, is located.

Nigeria has been home to a number of ancient and indigenous pre-colonial states and kingdoms over the millennia. The modern state originated from British colonial rule beginning in the 19th century, and took its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914 by Lord Frederick Lugard. The British set up administrative and legal structures while practicing indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms; Nigeria became a formally independent federation on October 1, 1960. It experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1970. It thereafter alternated between democratically elected civilian governments and military dictatorships until it achieved a stable democracy in 1999, with the 2015 presidential election marking the first time an incumbent president had lost re-election.[6]

A multinational state, Nigeria is inhabited by more than 250 ethnic groups with over 500 distinct languages all identifying with a wide variety of cultures.[7][8][9] The three largest ethnic groups are the Hausa–Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the west, and Igbo in the east; comprising over 60% of the total population.[10] The official language of Nigeria is English, chosen to facilitate linguistic unity at the national level.[11] Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Christians, who live mostly in the southern part of the country, and Muslims, who live mostly in the north. Nigeria has respectively, the fifth-largest Muslim population in the world and the sixth-largest Christian population in the world,[12] with the constitution ensuring freedom of religion.[13] A minority of the population practice religions indigenous to Nigeria, such as those native to the Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities.[14]

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa[15][16] and the seventh most populous country in the world, with an estimated 206 million inhabitants as of late 2019.[17][18] Nigeria has the third-largest youth population in the world, after India and China, with more than 90 million of its population under the age of eighteen.[19][20] Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa and is the world's 24th largest economy according to the list by the IMF (2020 estimates), worth more than $500 billion and $1 trillion in terms of nominal GDP and purchasing power parity, respectively.[21][22] The 2013 debt-to-GDP ratio was 11 percent as of 2019 it has risen to an approximated figure of 16 percent.[23] Nigeria is a lower middle-income economy with a gross national income per capita between $1,026 and $3,986.[24] Nigeria is often referred to as the "Giant of Africa", owing to its large population and economy,[25] it is also considered to be an emerging market by the World Bank;[26] it has been identified as a regional power on the African continent,[27][28][29] a middle power in international affairs,[30][31][32][33] and has also been identified as an emerging global power.[34][35][36] However, its Human Development Index ranks 158th in the world

 The economic activity of Nigeria is dominated by agriculture. This sector contributes 45.5 per cent of foreign exchange earnings (Government of Nigeria, 1976) and provides employment to 44.0 per cent of the working population, and accounts for 25.0 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product  (Government of Nigeria, 1979). Besides subscribing to a significant segment of the economy, the agricultural sector also contributes to the highest incidence of poverty among the Nigerian households (estimated to be 54.6 per cent in 1978). Nigerian agricultural policies are very much guided by the New Economic Policy (NEP) which is a socio-economic policy contemplated to achieve national unity through two-pronged objectives of eradicating poverty irrespective of race, and restructuring society to eliminate identification of race with economic functions and geographical location (Government of Nigeria, 1976).

The development of human resources in accordance with the objectives of the New Economic Policy is given high
priority in the Third Malaysia Plan of 1976-1980 (Government of Nigeria, 1976). The availability of educated agricultural manpower at all levels is crucial to the success of the agricultural development programs that have direct relevance to poverty eradication in the rural areas. Sufficient number of extension personnel is especially important to render desired extension services to rice-farmers, rubber-smallholders, fishermen, and other agricultural workers in order to help in increasing their productivity and income levels, resulting in a higher standard of living than they are experiencing presently (Government of Malaysia, 1979).

Thus, in Nigeria, well-educated, dedicated and efficient agricultural extension personnel are critical in order for various agricultural development agencies to remain dynamic, vital, and effective forces in facing changes and challenges of increased development of Malaysian agriculture, progressive implementation of rural development programs, rising level of literacy and education of rural dwellers, as well as continuous changes in the agricultural, home and social environment of the rural areas. The role of extension education in the agricultural and
rural development of Nigeria was stressed by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries at an opening address to The First National Workshop On Extension Research and Evaluation organized jointly by the Ford Foundation and the Agricultural University of Malaysia in June of 1974 (Zainuddin, 1974, p. 10). He said that: Extension is essentially an important requisite in ensuring that development in a country could be carried out vigorously in the achievement of all-round progress. Without extension efforts all the development projects in the Second Nigeria Plan and subsequent Plans will not bring about the desired results. An all round national development will only be achieved if development projects lay emphasis on human development in order to obtain a lasting change and progress (Zainuddin, 1974, p. 10).

On the importance of extension to Nigeria development, the Minister delivered the following remark:
The importance of extension in all aspects of national development cannot be denied, for extension is the most effective machinery for disseminating modern technology resulting from scientific research work, for the benefit of
rural consumers and consequently to ensure that modern technology will be applied permanently. It is thus clear that extension forms an important link between the rural people and the government or between development and
research. Only an effective and dynamic extension system can guarantee that all research and development efforts planned and executed by government machineries will be implemented properly and meaningfully. In short, the success of research and developments are dependent upon the effectiveness of its extension system (Zainuddin, 1974, p. 10-11). Extension education in Malaysia is a relatively new idea.
Although extension work had been carried out in Malaysia since the inception of the Department of Agriculture, the concept applied was more fitted for 'advisory services' rather than extension work in its true sense. As an effort to correct this misconception, the Department of Agriculture (Educational Branch, 1973, p. 1) has since defined extension as:
           . . . a process of developing human resources,
            of putting useful technology into action and
             transforming the rural economy and community
             into dynamic and productive institutions.

This definition denotes that extension has been viewed as a process of educating farmers and other rural dwellers to uplift their standard of living through learning of new knowledge, technology and skills and making use of them to overcome,their problems related to their farms, homes, families and communities (Mahmud and Ujang, 1971). The late Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Abdul Razak, well-recognized as an architect of agricultural and rural
development programs of the country, on an occasion when he addressed a meeting of government agency officers, noted that the government had created a large number of statutory bodies for the express purpose of bypassing government regulations and red tapes so that they could move at a quicker pace to make the national goals a reality (Hannah, 1972, p. 19). He reminded them to be:
             . .'business like', to operate with
             efficiency, to be dynamic and imaginative,
             to cooperate with each other, and to coordinate their efforts to forge ahead with

             plans (Hannah, 1972, p. 19).

Intrinsically, the creation of these institutions has many advantages: some of the more significant ones are increased efficiency and effectiveness through specialization of functions, ease of initiating crash programs, and curtailing of some stringent rules and regulations which normally hinder development and progress of large multi-purposed organizations. Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA), Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (RISDA), Farmers' Organization Authority (FOA), Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA), and Agricultural University of Nigeria are examples of such statutory institutions that were created to augment the agricultural and rural development efforts in Nigeria. 

The main and ultimate objective of these institutions is to help the farmers, the rural dwellers and their farm families to develop themselves and their communities so that they will lead better and finer lives than the present ones as endeavored by the agricultural and rural development programs of the government.

1.2 STATEMENT PROBLEM
In a study of the factors associated with the Nigerian farmers' attitudes towards the agricultural extension services,
Ariffin (1970) concluded that the Malaysian agricultural workers had to be adequately trained both in agricultural technology and social skills in order that they would be more effective in dealing with the future economic and social problems of the rural society. An analysis of the training needs of Nigerian extension workers as perceived by a group of selected Nigerian students revealed that the Malaysian extension workers needed strong training in the areas of extension education, and agricultural production and marketing (Teh, 1973). In a study of the factors associated with the Malay peasant farmers' acceptance of the agricultural practices recommended by the Nigerian extension service, Ariffin (1975) concluded that the Nigerian extension workers had to possess economic and subject-matter competencies if they were to promote effective educational changes among the Malay peasant farmers. In a more recent study of the training needs for extension professionals working in the smallholder sector of the rubber industry in West Malaysia, Tugiman (1977) concluded that
generally there was a strong perception that training is needed by personnel of rubber development organizations in
 he areas of extension program planning, program execution, and program evaluation in order for them to perform their jobs effectively.

The preceding studies lead to a conclusion that ~Nigerian agricultural extension workers have to be trained to perform their job effectively for the overall accomplishment of the objectives of agricultural and rural development programs.

  Thus, the problem for this research was: What are the professional competencies needed by Nigerian Agricultural Extension Supervisors, and which competencies should be developed through preservice and/or in service education programs?

1.3 SIGNIFICANT OF STUDY 
A major constraint in accelerating socio-economic development in Malaysia is the shortage of trained manpower at all levels in the science and technical fields (Government of Nigeria, 1976). Increased efforts have to be made to
coordinate educational policies and programs to minimize duplication of facilities, efforts and resources. Curriculum
and content of preservice and inservice programs should be constantly examined and modified to meet employment and manpower needs.
Traditionally, Nigerian agricultural development workers, especially the agricultural extension supervisors,
received their preservice educational experiences at the College of Agriculture . This function was taken over by
the Agricultural University of Nigeria when it was established in 1971. The results of this study will further
strengthen the University's program in the area of extension
education for students who will potentially be serving as agricultural extension supervisors in the agricultural development agencies such as the Department of Agriculture, Federal Land Development Authority, Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority, Farmers' Organization Authority, Muda
Agricultural Development Authority and others. Also, the findings of this study can assist the agricultural development agencies and the Agricultural University of Nigeria to develop more systematic and effective inservice education programs for their extension supervisory personnel, with the hope that they will be more competent and capable of discharging their professional obligations with maximum efficiency.

1.4 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The primary purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the professional education competencies perceived to
be important to the performance of Nigerian agricultural extension supervisors as perceived by selected agricultural extension administrators and agricultural extension supervisors in five selected agricultural development agencies in Nigeria. A secondary purpose was to determine the importance of the inclusion of the competencies in preservice and/or inservice education programs that prepared persons for agricultural extension supervisor positions.

The specific objectives of this study were:
1. To identify selected personal characteristics of agricultural extension administrators and agriculture
extension supervisors serving in the Department of Agriculture, Federal Land Development Authority, Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority, Farmers' Organization Authority, and Muda Agricultural Development Authority.

2. To determine how important selected professional education competencies are to the performance of agricultural extension supervisors.

3. To determine the importance of the inclusion of professional education competencies in preservice and/ or inservice education program that prepared persons for agricultural extension supervisor positions

4. To determine the relationship between importance of professional education competencies for position performance and importance ratings for the inclusion in preservice and/or inservice education program.