18.2 years showing that these participating farmers are well familiar with sorghum production to enable them understand and cope based on their high levels of education about the newly introduced production technologies. For rice, about 29% have 1-10 years of experience in rice cultivation while 45% have 11-20 years of experience, 15% have 21-30 years of experience and about 11% have over 30 years of experience in rice cultivation. The average year of experience nationally for rice cultivation was 18 years. This shows that the cultivation of rice has been with us as a nation for a fairly long time.
Table: 10 Year of experience in farming by farmers Farming Experience
Cassava
Sorghum
Rice
1-10
26(43.33)
33(41.25)
23(28.75)
11-20
26(43.33)
23(28.75)
36(45.0)
21-30
7(11.67)
15(18.75)
12(15.0)
>30
7(11.67)
11(13.75)
9(11.25)
Average
12.67
18.2
17.9
Figures in parentheses are percentages
5.1.11 Extension contact by ATASP-1 participating farmers Contact by farmers with the extension workers is very important as this is an important source of technology diffusion to farmers particularly farmers in the rural communities. Table 11 presents information about extension contact, number of visits and membership of association by ATASP-1 participating farmers. From table 3, 98% of cassava participating farmers claimed they have contact with extension agents while less than 2% claimed they do not, about 99% of sorghum participating farmers claimed they have contact with extension agents while barely 1% claimed they do not and about 98% of rice farmers claimed they have contact with extension agents while about 2% claimed they do not. On the number of visits, averagely, cassava had about 15 visits, sorghum 14 visits while rice had 15 visits annually. This is considered to be very substantial and sufficient enough to enhance adequate information dissemination to these farmers.
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