ISSN 2360-7971
Abstract
This study examined the effect of agricultural extension services on livelihood diversification outcomes of smallholder farmers in southern taraba, nigeria. Multistage and proportionate sampling techniques were used to select 243 respondents from Wukari, Donga, and Takum Local Government Areas. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that 69.1% of the respondents were male, 66.2% were aged 31–50 years, 77.8% were married, 62.1% had at least primary or secondary education, 88.5% cultivated less than 5 hectares of land, and 58.4% belonged to cooperative societies. The results further showed that respondents practiced diverse livelihood strategies, with crop farming (81.5%), small-scale trading (77.8%), livestock production (72.4%), wage labour (71.2%), petty trading in agricultural inputs (67.9%), poultry production (65.0%), agro-processing (63.4%), food vending (60.5%), and cooperative savings schemes (58.4%) being the most dominant activities, while beekeeping (25.5%) and land leasing (30.5%) were the least practiced. The exponential regression model provided the best fit (R² = 0.71; Adjusted R² = 0.69; F = 26.45, p < 0.01), indicating that extension services had a positive and significant effect on livelihood diversification. Peer-to-peer knowledge exchange (β = 0.289), farm visits (β = 0.301), market information sharing (β = 0.260), and farmers’ group meetings (β = 0.240) were the strongest determinants. The study concludes that extension services are effective strategies for improving livelihood diversification among smallholder farmers. It recommends strengthening extension services, improving farmers’ access to credit and production inputs, promoting stronger farmer cooperatives, and integrating formal extension services with ICT-based communication platforms to enhance rural livelihoods
Keywords: Extension services, Livelihood diversification, Smallholder Farmers, Southern Taraba