FARMERS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS PAYING FOR AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICES IN AKOKO SOUTHWEST, ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined farmers’ attitude towards paying for agricultural extension services in Akoko Southwest, Ondo State. The study described the socio-economic characteristics of farmers in the study area; accessed farmers’ perception of extension services; determined farmers’ willingness to pay for extension services; and also examined the constraints to crop production. The study adopted a descriptive research design of the survey type, the population of the study consisted of 80 farmers who were selected using multi stage sampling technique. The research instrument for the study was a structure questionnaire and data collected was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of the study showed that farmers in the study area were within their active age with a mean age of 41.3years, majority of the farmers were married and also have formal education. The results also revealed that the farmers had more than 10years of farming experience but do not have adequate access to extension services and the little percentage of the farmers who had access to extension services had access to it within a minimum span of six and 11years. Furthermore, the result showed that farmers have positive perception of extension services and are willing to pay for extension services. The result also showed a significant negative correlation between farmers’ farming experience and willingness to pay for extension services (p0.05) relationship exist between farmers’ age, education, access to extension services, span of access to extension services and willingness to pay for extension services. The study recommends that extension services through extension agents should be provided on a regular basis for all farmers in the study area. Seminars and workshops should be organized for farmer as this would help enlighten them on new crop varieties and modern technologies they can adopt in farming. Government should establish and implement laws that would provide farmers with easy access to loans. Farmers are encourage to join cooperate societies as they would have more access to information about crop production.