Assessment of Farmers’ Utilization of Global System for Mobile (GSM) For Communication in the Fadama III Program in Taraba State, Nigeria

The study assesses the farmers’ use of Global System for Mobile (GSM) for communication among farmers in agricultural extension programs in Taraba State, Nigeria. Specifically, the objectives include: identify key areas in which GSM are used for communication in agricultural extension programs activities, determine the frequency of usage of GSM for information exchange between farmers and extension personnel; and ascertain farmers’ satisfaction in the use of GSM in obtaining information in the various agricultural extension programs. The population for this study included all beneficiaries/farmers under the agricultural extension programs in Taraba state, Nigeria. Purposive sampling was adopted because of the accessibility of the selected three Local Government Areas (LGAs), (Ardo-Kola, Jalingo & Lau) throughout the year. Five Fadama User Groups (FUGs) were randomly selected from each LGA to constitute fifteen FUGs for the study. From each FUG, ten respondents were drawn randomly to give a sample size for the study. In the Fadama III project, respondents’ key areas of communications with personnel of the project included: group formation (88%), mobilization of members for participation in Fadama III programs and activities (87.3%), awareness creation of Fadama III intervention (82.7%), capacity building activities (81.3%), convening of Fadama User Group (FUG)/FCA meetings (81.3%), sub-project preparation and management (80.7%), advisory services and input support services (80%), environmental/social screening friendly practices (72.7%), asset acquisition activities (68%), record-keeping activities (66%), small-scale community infrastructure activities (63.3%) and financial management (61.3%). Farmers indicated their satisfaction in obtaining information o;n capacity building activities by the use of GSM with the (M = 1.21), advisory services and input support activities (M = 1.28), asset acquisition activities, (M= 1.16), mobilization of members for participation in Fadama III activities (M = 1.40), convening FUG/FCA meetings ( M = 1.43), financial management (M=1.09), record-keeping activities (M = 1.17), awareness creation of Fadama III intervention (M = 1.27), group formation (M = 1.37) and environmental/social screening and environmentally friendly practices ( M = 1.17). The main challenges included no GSM phones provided by Fadama III to farmers (M = 1.37), low level of education of farmers (M = 1.55), erratic power supply (M = 1.41), high call tariff (M = 1.11), poor network coverage (M = 1.24), lack of maintenance e.g recharging (M = 1.11), and fluctuating services by the service providers (M = 1.16). The study suggested that the Information and communication unit of the Fadama III project should collaborate with other media outfits and extension units to disseminate agro-information to the benefits of the Fadama III beneficiaries.

EXTENSION PROGRAMS PLANNING UNDER COMPREHENSIVE QUALITY STANDARDS IN SOME MIDDLE PROVINCES OF IRAQ

The research aimed to determine the overall quality standards through literature and specialists and overall quality experts , and to identifying the applied level by managers in some provinces of the central region . In order to achieve the objectives of the research , the researcher developed five scale ranging from grades ' ( 0-4 ) degree for the purpose of identifying the level of application of total quality standards for program planning by managers in the provinces of the central region , included (73) items distributed on (10) axes and ( 4) field (inputs , processes , outputs , feedback ) . The research was conducted on a random sample of 50% of Iraqi middle provinces ( Baghdad , Karblaa , Najaf , Wasit ) . A random sample about 39% of the agricultural divisions of these provinces of 20 agricultural divisions were chosen . The sample of respondents was 96 , 7 of them ( general manager , two assistants of the general manager and heads of the technical departments) were in department of agricultural extension and training , 15 of them ( the managers of agricultural directorates and the heads of agricultural extension and Heads of departments of planning in those offices) , 60 of them person ( heads of agricultural divisions and the officials of the units of agricultural extension and planning ), 4 of them ( managers of extensional training centers ) 10 of them of extension farms officials in the chosen research provinces . Results have showed that the level of application of total quality standards for planning and agricultural extension programs by managers in some provinces of the central region , by (50% ) The researcher recommende the adoption of the search results by the Ministry of Agriculture/ Planning Department to improve the agricultural extension programs planning process : Also the researcher recommended the need to review budgets and financial measures to ensure the provision of the necessary work indicative items on time , and its importance that the extension organization has independent operational budget on all levels , and to be distributed to the terms and aspects of exchange of field activities.