Abstract:

Agricultural extension services all over the world including Uganda have continuously undergone
transformations both in organizational structure and approach. In Uganda for example, public
extension services has experimented the transformations with different systems and 'approaches.
These changes have been due to the pressure on agricultural extension services to show impact
on the livelihood of the resource poor farmers. Contracting extension service is one of the
strategies to improve extension coverage and performance. Uganda is taking a lead in
transforming its public extension services in conformity with the rest of its economic
transformations. National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) is spearheading the contract
extension services to improve on the knowledge and information delivery to meet identifieo farmer
information needs. NAADS aim at developing demand driven, client oriented and farmer-led
service delivery, particularly targeting the poor and women. At the time of the study, NAADS was
promoting goats, groundnuts, pigeon pea and rice. The selection of these enterprises was done
through participatory planning process which, NAADS viewed as an avenue through which farmers
can have access to and control over services.
The general enterprise analysis results revealed that the most common enterprises in the farming
system in this area are cassava, beans, groundnuts, maize, tobacco, chicken, goats, and cattle.
The cash enterprises which farmers ranked as priority were goats, cattle and tobacco. Other
altemative enterprises were chicken, maize, groundnuts and vegetables. Meanwhile, farmers'
priority enterprise for food is cassava. Groundnuts, maize and beans served as other alternative
source of food as well. The results suggest a level of mismatch between what farmers and NAADS
considered to be priority enterprises. Rice and pigeon pea enterprises which NAADS considered to
be important was ranked low by farmers, while NAADS omitted cattle, beans, maize, cassava and (Thicken which appeared important to farmers. Farmers' choice enterprises which seemed to have
(greed with that of NAADS were only goats and groundnuts. The results also showed that NAADS
major interest lied on cash and yet farmers expressed food security concern as a major issue
affecting them as well.
The most important sources of agricultural knowledge and information to NAADS farmers in the
study area were private service providers, local government extension staff and the fellow farmers
which scored 53.8%, 22.5% and 16.3% respectively. Meanwhile, for non-NAADS farmers, the
major source was government extension workers (31.3%), followed by individual farmers (25.0%)
and then private service providers 12.5%). The least important source of information for NAADS
farmers and non-NAADS farmers was farmer group which, scored 2.5% and 1.3% respectively.
Further investigations showed that the common method private service providers and local
government extension staff used for delivering services to farmers were lectures which scored
68.8% and 58.8% respectively. The least commonly method used was farmer meetings which
scored 1.3% and 3.8% in the same order.
The new and improved recommended goats and groundnuts management practices/technologies
NAADS provided for improving production of these enterprise were goat shed construction, pasture
establishment, goat breed and giving of water to goats. For the case of groundnuts, the
practices/technologies provided were variety, row planting/sPacing, time of planting and weed
control. Chi-square test results show that NAADS farmers significantly had niore knowledge on
pasture establishment goat breeds and goat shed construction than non-NAADS farmers at
(p=0.000, 0000 and 0.007), respectively. There were also statistically significant association
between NAADS program and farmers' knowledge on weed control and time of planting at (P0.043 and 0.05), respectively. This means that the probability of farmers' knowledge on these
goats and groundnuts management practices/technologies is increased by NAADS program. T-test
analysis on the farmers' knowledge of goat shed, pasture establishment and goat breed indicated
significant mean differences between NAADS goats' farmers and other categories of farmers. In
every case, the mean knowledge of NAADS goats' farmers was higher than those of other
categories of farmers. This means that NAADS farmers had more knowledge than non-NAADS
farmers. Although not significant, the farmers' knowledge on the recommended new and improved
management practices/technologies increased over time, indicated by the higher means after a
period of three seasons. However, the knowledge on the rice and pigeon pea after three seasons
was not significantly different from that at the beginning of the program. Chi-square test indicate
that NAADS goats farmers significantly used goat shed construction, pasture establishment and
improved breeds more than non-NAADS farmers at (p=0.010, 0.000, 0.007), respectively. 1-test
results show that the mean differences between NAADS goats' farmers and other categories of
farmers on the use of goat shed, pasture and goat breed practices/technologies were significant.
However, there were no significant changes in the way rice and pigeon pea farmers utilized the
recommended practices/technologies over a period of study time. This was attributed to the long
time farmers have been engaged in the production of the enterprises, particularly rice. Meanwhile,
for the case of pigeon pea, it was attributed to less value farmers attached to the enterprise.
Farmers noted that contract extension has improved applicability of agricultural knowledge. They
also believed that contract extension has improved accessibility to in-puts. Another assertion is
that frequencies with which the farmers come into contact with the private service providers had
increased. However, farmers expressed worries that NAADS is not linking their produce to
markets, which is discouraging. All the categories of farmers expressed the need for fair roads connecting one village to another so as to improve on the market strategies. Other criteria which
were of interest to the farmers for judging contract extension included methods of teaching, in-put
quality, access to credits. The farmers ranked teaching methods fair, but access to credits and
quality of in-puts was ranked poorly. NAADS farmers significantly observed that there were
inadequate trainings and irregular contacts with the private service providers at (p=0.016 and
0.043), respectively. On the other hand, NAADS farmers significantly believed that the knowledge
delivered is applicable and the methods private service providers used for teaching were good at
(0.000 and 0.016), respectively. While other comments like no access to credit and markets had
insignificant relationship with NAADS program. These problems of lack of market and financial
support appeared crucial for farmers both in NAADS and non-NAADS groups.
Approximately, 61.5% private service providers expressed constraints of irregular and timely
release of funds to implement activities, There were also complains that contracts are awarded late
and end within three months before the completion of season for a particular crop. Another 15.4%
private service providers had the view that coordination of services should be done at sub-counties
and community levels to show impact. According to them, this would be important especially where
some activities are season based and yet they cannot be done unless funds and other materials
are released from NAADS secretariat or the district headquarters.
Following the summary of the study, it is important to consider key issues that are identified in the
study sequentially according to the objective and then make recommendations for further research
and development undertakings.