Assessment of faith based organisations involvement in agricultural extension service delivery in Nkwerre Local Government Area of Imo State, Nigeria

The study assessed Faith Based Organisations involvement in agricultural extension service delivery as a strategy for enhancing rural women farmer’s access to extension services in Nkwerre local Government Area, Imo State, Nigeria. One hundred and seventeen (117) rural women farmers were selected for the study using multistage sampling procedure. Data were collected with the aid of questionnaire and was analysed using descriptive statistics, namely, Mean, frequency counts and percentages. The result shows that 45.3% of farmers were married, 36.8% were educated, with a mean age and household size of 42 years and 6 persons respectively. Approximately 54% earn between 20,000 to 50,000 Naira monthly and 55.6% have been visited by extension agent. The major agricultural extension services available for rural women in the studied area were education and provision of improved varieties of crops (85.5%) linking farmers to available agricultural information sources (76.9%) and educating farmers on pests and disease management (71.8%). Approximately 70% agreed that FaithBased Organization (FBO) support extension service delivery in the locality and have received information from extension agents through FBO. Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) (77.8%), Redeemed Christian Church of God (76.1 and Mountain of Fire ministries (76.1) were the major FBO the women have received information from. The major effect of engaging FBO in extension service delivery were that FBO facilitates the rate of adoption of innovation (M=2.92) and dissemination of information among rural women farmers in the locality (M=2.75). Effective strategies that could be deployed to enhance FBO involvement in extension service delivery were establishing and sustaining effective partnerships between FBOs and agricultural extension agencies (M=2.81) and organising joint workshops or seminars on agriculture and sustainable practices (M=2.69). From the result, the study affirms that there is a positive impact of faith-based organization in extension service delivery as farmers’ access agricultural information through FBOs. The study  ecommends that government and nongovernmental organizations should leverage these FBOs in extension service delivery as this will help to provide more hands for effective extension service delivery.