Abstract
The study examined the socio-economic determinants of rice farmers’ access to agricultural extension services in Bunkure LGA, Kano State, Nigeria. Two-stage random sampling technique was employed in this study. This comprised of purposive selection of Bunkure Local Government Area (LGA) due to high population of rice farmers within the LGA and random selection of ten (10) respondents from each of the twelve (12) communities that made up of Bunkure LGA. Therefore one hundred and twenty (120) respondents were used for the study. Data collected were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings showed that respondents’ mean age was 40 years, household size was 9, farming experience (in years) was 9, monthly income of N26, 729.00k and farm size of 4ha. Majority of respondents (71.7%) were males and married (58.3%). Above average (55.0%) had secondary education while major source of information was Radio/TV (61.7%). Results on access to extension services revealed that current information on rice/participation in SPAT (=1.001), capacity building support (=1.017) were ranked as 1st and 3rd amongst other variables. Accessibility factors to extension services are level of education, farming experience, presence of extension, average monthly income, farm size and constraints. There was significant relationship between the selected socio-economic characteristics of respondents and access to extension services (p≤0.01). The study recommended provision of more extension personnel, improvement in accessibility determinant factors, provision of non-formal education program and formation of more farmers’ cooperative societies in the study area.
