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4. A. A. Adekoya. Educational Training of Farm and Extension Managers in Nigeria From Adekoya, A. A. (1991). Educational Training of Farm and Extension Managers. Nigerian Journal of Educational Foundations, 2 (2), 104-112.
Introduction Much research evidence has been marshalled to argue that low productivity on Nigerian farms is as a result of the poor managerial skills of farm managers (Patel, 1981; Olayide, 1983; Arua, 1981). Normally, each failure of a commercial farm is a simple reaffirmation of the underperformance of its farm manager or a preference for highly skilled farm managers who are able to utilise limited resources to obtain optimum returns from farm investments. Occassionally, however, the failure of a corporate farm may be adduced to more than the afforementioned representations. Issues such as the external support given to entetprise operators on the farm and efforts on the part of the farm administration to upgrade the calibre of staff working on the farm are likely contributors to the survival or failure of a farm. External support may come in form of credit and extension information. Such support services are expected to be timely, relevant and carefully designed to meet the needs of the farm operator. Timely extension information services are expected to assist the farm operator(s) in taking appropriate decisions on farm management issues. The quality and quantity of technical information on agricultural production offered by the extension services have a tremendous influence on the production patterns on the farm (Olayide, 1983). For these and other reasons, an experienced extension agent or supervisor is often preferred to the first year agent or supervisor by corperate farms (Williams, 1971). The notion that the experienced extension professional offers seasoned and reliable advice that would make for prudent actions and decisions is common among the commercial farm operators. In the light of the responsibilities expected of professionals managing corporate farms, additional training in farm managment and extension practices is often necessary. Such training is expected to beefup the lapses in farm and extension management practices, especially in the areas of planning, controlling, activating, evaluating and monitoring of activities on the farm (Adekoya, 1990). One programme by a World Bank and Federal Government financed management training institute that attempts to pxovide this training, is the farm management programme at the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin; Kwara State, Nigeria. An effort is made in this study to determine the extent to which this programme is perceived by some of its alumni as contributing to skills development in the area of planning, controlling activating, evaluating and monitoring of activities on and off the farm.
26. Rural Resource Development
Training Programme in Farm Management The management training programme in farm management consists of course curriculum that integrates informal experiences of the trainee in the arena of work with the changing role he is expected to play after graduating from the programme (Alabi, 1985). The intensions of the trainee is sought prior to enrollment on the programme. Prospective trainees are expected to have had a work experience of two to four years after graduating from the University, Polytechnic, or College of Agriculture. On graduating from the programme the trainee is expected to be able to perform some functions which encompass the art of planning, controlling, evaluating and monitoring human and material resources on the farm (Alabi, 1985). As presented by the farm management faculty of ARMTI, the programme consists of many training units, each consisting of sufficient number of items to last a training session of 60 - 120 minutes. A typical training session of 120 minutes consists of the introduction of the trainee to the concept of farm management. The objectives of the unit include: 1) defining the concept of farm management; 2) identifying the responsibilities of the farm manager; and 3) reviewing economic principles and cost concepts that underling the farm manager’s decision. An outline of steps in the farm manager's decision taking runs through a number of tasks: 1) recognising a situation that requires the farm manager's attention; (2) identifying alternative actions; 3) choosing the best alternative; 4) taking action and 5) giving the alternative action a fair chance to work. Discussing these steps requires a lot of motivation and creativity from the trainer, or else, the discussion becomes monotonous and unmotivating. Attempts may be made to vary the mode of information delivery, questioning and reducing the discussion to such concepts and practices with which the trainee is familiar. What are the intentions embedded in the notion of work experience for a prospective trainee of the farm management programme at ARMTI? Prior to the establishment of the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute in Nigeria, the few farm managers in the country had little or no experience in running a farm of theirs. In addition, only a few could boast of adequate practical experienee at managing a farm enterprise. The University curriculum in farm management was, and still is, treated as a component within the broad field of agricultural economics in most universities. Except for the few federal universities of technology that treat farm management as an independent field of study, most of the traditional first generation universities in Nigeria, still offer the element of farm mangement as a component of agricuitural economics. Graduates from this programme did not see themselves as prospective farm managers, nor did they seek employment as farm managers in the few commercial farms existing then. The theoretical orientation of the university degree programme in agricultural economics further reinforced the inclination of the graduates of the discipline and did not help matters either. 27. Rural Resource Development
The administrators of the farm management programme at ARMTI have been cautious of the possible handicaps of the prospective applicants and have thus set the criteria for admission into the programme to include two to four years' farm management practical work experience after obtaining a university degree or an equivalent qualification in an area of agriculture or a closely related discipline. Methodology The expectations of trainee farm managers of the farm management programme at ARMTI are not enough to enable one determine the contribution of the programme to skills development in the areas of planning, controlling, evaluating and monitoring activities on the farm. An evaluation of the perceptions of some alumni of the programme, on the extent to which they perceive the programme as contributing to their ability to further execute tasks in planning, evaluating, controlling and monitoring activities on the farm is one logical way of achieving this objective. Towards this end, a questionnaire was designed and administered on a sample of the alumni of the programme with employment in three agricutural development projects in Nigeria : the Kano Agricultural Development Authority; Borno Accelerated Agricultural Development Programme; and Akoko-Ekiti Agricultural Development Project. A total of 61 completed questionnaires·were returned, a response rate of 84.7 percent. Of the 61 respondnets who completed the questionnaire 48, were in the age range of 25-45. Excluded from the analysis were three respondents who indicated that they were part-time employees of the development projects. Eighty-six percent of the remaining respondents had completed either a diploma or a higher diploma in agriculture from a college of agriculture or polytechnic. Four of the repondents had a University degree in agriculture or other related fields. A majority of the respondents had worked for over five years, with their various organizations. A breakdown of the respondents’ marital status and sex, indicate that 85% were married and over 92% were male. In addition to the demographic information concerning the respondents, the questionnaire dealt with skills development in specific areas of managerial functions or tasks, namely : (i) planning of farm enterprises; (ii) evaluating required levels of resource use, given the profit-making goal of the farm; (iii) controlling and limiting funds mismanagement; (iv) activating failing enterprise; and, (v) monitoring labour-use schedules for farm operations.
28 Human Resource Development
Results of the Study Table 1 shows the extent to which the farm management training programme is perceived-as contributing to skills' development in some areas of managerial functions or tasks by alumni of the programme. In comparing perceptions of respondents, it was necessary to classify the sixty-one alumni into groups using institutional affiliation as a criterion. classify the sixty-one alumni into groups, using the institutional affiliation as a criterion. Three major groups emerged : Group 1 consists of farm and extension managers employed with the Kano Agricultural Development Authority; Group 2 included farm and extension managers with Akoko-Ekiti Agricultural Development Project; and Group 3, farm extension managers at the Borno Accelerated Agricultural Development Programme. Three of the questionnaires were excluded in the final analysis because of incomplete responses. Among the alumni, 12% said the farm management programme did not contribute to skills’ development in the managerial function of planning farm enterprise at all; whilst 21% stated that it had the least contribution. Althogether, 33%, i.e. about one-third of the programme’s alumni chose one of the two negative alternatives: least adequately or not at all. Sixty nine percent of the respondents believed that the programme contributes adequately or very adequately to developing skills in the managerial function of planning farm enterprises. The reaction to the question about the extent to which the sampled alumni perceived training received during the farm management programme as contributing to the managerial function of evaluating required level of resource use, given the profit maximisation goal of the farm, is not encouraging. Over 77 % of the total respondents chose one of the two negative alternative answers. Only 22% of the total respondents believed that the programme contributeed adequately or very adequately to skills' development in this particular area of managerial function. One of the alumni in Group 1 did not react to the question : To what extent do you perceive the programme as contributing to skills developmeiit in the area of controlling and limiting funds mismanagement?’ Twenty-one percent of the alumni said that the programme contributed least.or not at all whilst over 78% of them chose one of the positive alternatives of adequate or very adequate contribution. There was about an even spread of responses to the question : ‘To what extent do you perceive the training received during the farm management programme as contributing to skills development in the areas of activating failing farm enterprise?’ An equal number of respondents believed the programme contributed adequately or very adequately to skills development in activating failing enterprises. The difference in the number of respondents who believed the programme did not contribute adequately to skills development in activating failing enterprises and those who believed it did so least adequately, was only only three. 29. Rural Resource Development
Table 1 : Alumni perception of the extent to which the farm Management training programme contributes to skills’ development in some areas of Managerial functions. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Managerial
Perceptional
Functions/
Groups
PROPORTION OF RESPONSES Not At all
Tasks
Least
Adequately
Adequately N
%
N
%
Very Adequately
N
%
N
%
Mean N
%
Planning of
1
1
12.5
1
12.5
5
12.5
1
12.5
8
2.75
Farm Enter-
2
2
8.3
5
20.3
14
58.3
3
12.5
24
2.75
prise
3
4
15.3
6
23.0
13
50.0
4
15.3
26
2.73
7
12.0
12
20.6
32
55.1
8
13.7
58
2.74
All Groups
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Evaluating
1
1
12.5
5
62.5
1
12.5
1
12.5
8
2.75
Required
2
5
20.8
12
50.0
4
16.6
3
12.5
24
2.21
level of resource Use 3
4
15.3
18
69.2
3
11.5
1
3.8
26
2.04
10
17.2
35
60.3
8
13.8
5
8.6
All Groups
58
2.14
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Controlling and
1
0
0.0
2
28.5
limiting funds
2
2
8.3
1
mismanagement
3
2
7.6
4
9.0
All Groups
1
14.2
4
57.8
7
3.14
4.1
10
41.6
11
45.8
24
3.25
5
19.2
10
38.5
9
34.6
26
3.00
9
14.0
21
36.2
24
42.1
57
3.27
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Activating
1
3
37.5
2
25.0
1
12.5
1
12.5
8
1.75
failing
2
6
25.0
6
25.0
6
25.0
6
25.0
24
2.50
enterprise
3
8
30.1
6
23.0
6
23.0
6
23.0
26
2.38
17
29.3
14
24.1
13
22.4
13
22.4
58
2.34
All Groups
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Monitoring
1
1
25.0
2
25.0
3
37.5
1
12.5
8
2.37
Labour-Use
2
4
16.6
7
29.1
5
20.8
8
33.3
24
2.87
Schedules
3
5
19.2
9
34.6
11
42.3
1
3.8
26
2.31
11
18.9
18
31.0
19
32.7
10
17.2
58
2.48
All Groups
* Group 1 - Farm and Extension Managers at KNARDA Group 2 - Farm and Extension Managers at AKOKO-EKITI Group 3 - Farm and Extension Managers at BOAADP:
Fifty percent of the alumni chose either a positive or a negative alternative answer to the question : 'To what extent do you perceive training received during the farm management programme as contributing to skills development in the area of monitoring labour-use schedules on the farm?. While about 33% of the respondents believed that the programme contributed adequately to skills development in monitoring labour-use schedules on the farm, a little ove 17% believed it did so adequately. Similarly, while 19% of the alumni did not believe that the programme contributed to skills development in monitoring labour-use schedules on the farm, 31% believed it did so least adequately. 30 Human Resource Development
Discussion The importance of assisting farm managers through skills training in a formal setting as the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute may not be overemphasised. The majority of private management training institutes currently available in Nigeria focus on skills development in the area of maintaining corporate profit, especially-on commercial farms (Oyeneye,1980). The only public management training institute that is attempting to fulfil the yearnings of farm and extension managers in Nigeria for additional training in skills development in the area of managerial functions was evaluated here, through its alumni. The evaluation of the farm management programme by alumni of the programme raised a lot of questions about the content of the farm management course. Management trainers at ARMTI are being confronted with the need to define the objective of their training programmes to meet the needs of the day-to-day work environment of farm and extension managers. They are being asked to define what the intended course or programme is for, what the source and scope of the training content are, and how best to organize these so as to achieve pre-defined objectives. The alumni and trainees of the farm management training programme at ARMTI have indicated a short-fall in the contribution of the programme to skills development in the area of evaluating required level of resource use on the farm. Over 77% of the respondents believed that the programme does not contribute at all, or least adequately to skills development in this area. Further, a 1ittle over half of the respondents did not believe that the course contributed to activating failing enterprises on the farm. As shown in Table 1, this constitutes about 53.5%. While majority of the alumni and trainees of the programme believed that the course contributed to skills development in planning of farm enterprises and controlling and limiting funds mismanagemet, about an equal proportion of the alumni believed that the programme either did or did not contribute to skills development in monitoring labour-use schedule. The development of a management training programme relevant to the working environment and the various situations in which a farm or extension manager may find himself is very important. The farm management training programme must be participant-oriented and relevant to the needs of the trainees. In practice, this means that ARMTI-trainers must pay specific attention to the deficiencies of their programme as indicated by the alumni. The need to be relevant to the specific needs of farm and extension managers may not be taken for granted in reviewing the academic or practical content of the programme. Attempts must be made to answer such crucial questions as who will benefit, from such a review? What is the review intended for? To what degree should the course review be directed towards the needs of the current or future farm or extension managers? The extent of review to the course should be determined by the realities of the situation in which the trainees find themselves. 31. Rural Resource Development
The units under the modules discussed in the farm management programme may be organised into a field or information materials that enhance the essential skills’ development needs of the farm and extension managers. This may result in information materials that generate a training or teaching pattern in which·the trainees under the programme are as partners in a learning process with management trainers. References Adekoya, A.A. ( 1990 ). A management Training Programme in Extension Supervision and Management. Tropical Agriculture ( Trind.), 67 (4), 345-349. Alabi, J.O. (1985).Welcome Address to Participants in ARMTI's Extension Supervision and Management course, Ilorin (Unpublished manuscript). Arua, E.0. ( 1981 ). Food shortage in Nigeria: The Cooperative Way Out (Unpublished manuscript). Olayide, S.0. ( 1983 ). Implementing the National Green Revolution, in Oshuntogun, A & Ugorji, R. U. ( eds ). The Private Sector and Nigeria’s Agricultural Development. Ilorin : ARMTI Seminar Series, 4; 58-65. Oyeneye, 0. (1980). The Nature and Process of Human Development. Labour and Society, 5 (4), 269-277. Patel, A.U. (1981). Training Needs of Agricultural Managers and Responsibilities of ARMTI, in Ijere, M. O. and Idachaba, F. S. ( eds ) Managing Agricultural Development in Nigeria. Ilorin, ARMTI Seminar series, 1, 144-151. Williams; S.K.T. and Williams, C.E. ( 1971 ) Farmers' contact with Agricultural Extension Service in Western State of Nigeria. Bulletin of Rural Economics and Sociology, 6 (1), 48-49.
32 Human Resource Development
Introduction Much research evidence has been marshalled to argue that low productivity on Nigerian farms is as a result of the poor managerial skills of farm managers (Patel, 1981; Olayide, 1983; Arua, 1981). Normally, each failure of a commercial farm is a simple reaffirmation of the underperformance of its farm manager or a preference for highly skilled farm managers who are able to utilise limited resources to obtain optimum returns from farm investments. Occassionally, however, the failure of a corporate farm may be adduced to more than the afforementioned representations. Issues such as the external support given to entetprise operators on the farm and efforts on the part of the farm administration to upgrade the calibre of staff working on the farm are likely contributors to the survival or failure of a farm. External support may come in form of credit and extension information. Such support services are expected to be timely, relevant and carefully designed to meet the needs of the farm operator. Timely extension information services are expected to assist the farm operator(s) in taking appropriate decisions on farm management issues. The quality and quantity of technical information on agricultural production offered by the extension services have a tremendous influence on the production patterns on the farm (Olayide, 1983). For these and other reasons, an experienced extension agent or supervisor is often preferred to the first year agent or supervisor by corperate farms (Williams, 1971). The notion that the experienced extension professional offers seasoned and reliable advice that would make for prudent actions and decisions is common among the commercial farm operators. In the light of the responsibilities expected of professionals managing corporate farms, additional training in farm managment and extension practices is often necessary. Such training is expected to beefup the lapses in farm and extension management practices, especially in the areas of planning, controlling, activating, evaluating and monitoring of activities on the farm (Adekoya, 1990). One programme by a World Bank and Federal Government financed management training institute that attempts to pxovide this training, is the farm management programme at the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin; Kwara State, Nigeria. An effort is made in this study to determine the extent to which this programme is perceived by some of its alumni as contributing to skills development in the area of planning, controlling activating, evaluating and monitoring of activities on and off the farm.
26. Rural Resource Development
Training Programme in Farm Management The management training programme in farm management consists of course curriculum that integrates informal experiences of the trainee in the arena of work with the changing role he is expected to play after graduating from the programme (Alabi, 1985). The intensions of the trainee is sought prior to enrollment on the programme. Prospective trainees are expected to have had a work experience of two to four years after graduating from the University, Polytechnic, or College of Agriculture. On graduating from the programme the trainee is expected to be able to perform some functions which encompass the art of planning, controlling, evaluating and monitoring human and material resources on the farm (Alabi, 1985). As presented by the farm management faculty of ARMTI, the programme consists of many training units, each consisting of sufficient number of items to last a training session of 60 - 120 minutes. A typical training session of 120 minutes consists of the introduction of the trainee to the concept of farm management. The objectives of the unit include: 1) defining the concept of farm management; 2) identifying the responsibilities of the farm manager; and 3) reviewing economic principles and cost concepts that underling the farm manager’s decision. An outline of steps in the farm manager's decision taking runs through a number of tasks: 1) recognising a situation that requires the farm manager's attention; (2) identifying alternative actions; 3) choosing the best alternative; 4) taking action and 5) giving the alternative action a fair chance to work. Discussing these steps requires a lot of motivation and creativity from the trainer, or else, the discussion becomes monotonous and unmotivating. Attempts may be made to vary the mode of information delivery, questioning and reducing the discussion to such concepts and practices with which the trainee is familiar. What are the intentions embedded in the notion of work experience for a prospective trainee of the farm management programme at ARMTI? Prior to the establishment of the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute in Nigeria, the few farm managers in the country had little or no experience in running a farm of theirs. In addition, only a few could boast of adequate practical experienee at managing a farm enterprise. The University curriculum in farm management was, and still is, treated as a component within the broad field of agricultural economics in most universities. Except for the few federal universities of technology that treat farm management as an independent field of study, most of the traditional first generation universities in Nigeria, still offer the element of farm mangement as a component of agricuitural economics. Graduates from this programme did not see themselves as prospective farm managers, nor did they seek employment as farm managers in the few commercial farms existing then. The theoretical orientation of the university degree programme in agricultural economics further reinforced the inclination of the graduates of the discipline and did not help matters either. 27. Rural Resource Development
The administrators of the farm management programme at ARMTI have been cautious of the possible handicaps of the prospective applicants and have thus set the criteria for admission into the programme to include two to four years' farm management practical work experience after obtaining a university degree or an equivalent qualification in an area of agriculture or a closely related discipline. Methodology The expectations of trainee farm managers of the farm management programme at ARMTI are not enough to enable one determine the contribution of the programme to skills development in the areas of planning, controlling, evaluating and monitoring activities on the farm. An evaluation of the perceptions of some alumni of the programme, on the extent to which they perceive the programme as contributing to their ability to further execute tasks in planning, evaluating, controlling and monitoring activities on the farm is one logical way of achieving this objective. Towards this end, a questionnaire was designed and administered on a sample of the alumni of the programme with employment in three agricutural development projects in Nigeria : the Kano Agricultural Development Authority; Borno Accelerated Agricultural Development Programme; and Akoko-Ekiti Agricultural Development Project. A total of 61 completed questionnaires·were returned, a response rate of 84.7 percent. Of the 61 respondnets who completed the questionnaire 48, were in the age range of 25-45. Excluded from the analysis were three respondents who indicated that they were part-time employees of the development projects. Eighty-six percent of the remaining respondents had completed either a diploma or a higher diploma in agriculture from a college of agriculture or polytechnic. Four of the repondents had a University degree in agriculture or other related fields. A majority of the respondents had worked for over five years, with their various organizations. A breakdown of the respondents’ marital status and sex, indicate that 85% were married and over 92% were male. In addition to the demographic information concerning the respondents, the questionnaire dealt with skills development in specific areas of managerial functions or tasks, namely : (i) planning of farm enterprises; (ii) evaluating required levels of resource use, given the profit-making goal of the farm; (iii) controlling and limiting funds mismanagement; (iv) activating failing enterprise; and, (v) monitoring labour-use schedules for farm operations.
28 Human Resource Development
Results of the Study Table 1 shows the extent to which the farm management training programme is perceived-as contributing to skills' development in some areas of managerial functions or tasks by alumni of the programme. In comparing perceptions of respondents, it was necessary to classify the sixty-one alumni into groups using institutional affiliation as a criterion. classify the sixty-one alumni into groups, using the institutional affiliation as a criterion. Three major groups emerged : Group 1 consists of farm and extension managers employed with the Kano Agricultural Development Authority; Group 2 included farm and extension managers with Akoko-Ekiti Agricultural Development Project; and Group 3, farm extension managers at the Borno Accelerated Agricultural Development Programme. Three of the questionnaires were excluded in the final analysis because of incomplete responses. Among the alumni, 12% said the farm management programme did not contribute to skills’ development in the managerial function of planning farm enterprise at all; whilst 21% stated that it had the least contribution. Althogether, 33%, i.e. about one-third of the programme’s alumni chose one of the two negative alternatives: least adequately or not at all. Sixty nine percent of the respondents believed that the programme contributes adequately or very adequately to developing skills in the managerial function of planning farm enterprises. The reaction to the question about the extent to which the sampled alumni perceived training received during the farm management programme as contributing to the managerial function of evaluating required level of resource use, given the profit maximisation goal of the farm, is not encouraging. Over 77 % of the total respondents chose one of the two negative alternative answers. Only 22% of the total respondents believed that the programme contributeed adequately or very adequately to skills' development in this particular area of managerial function. One of the alumni in Group 1 did not react to the question : To what extent do you perceive the programme as contributing to skills developmeiit in the area of controlling and limiting funds mismanagement?’ Twenty-one percent of the alumni said that the programme contributed least.or not at all whilst over 78% of them chose one of the positive alternatives of adequate or very adequate contribution. There was about an even spread of responses to the question : ‘To what extent do you perceive the training received during the farm management programme as contributing to skills development in the areas of activating failing farm enterprise?’ An equal number of respondents believed the programme contributed adequately or very adequately to skills development in activating failing enterprises. The difference in the number of respondents who believed the programme did not contribute adequately to skills development in activating failing enterprises and those who believed it did so least adequately, was only only three. 29. Rural Resource Development
Table 1 : Alumni perception of the extent to which the farm Management training programme contributes to skills’ development in some areas of Managerial functions. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Managerial
Perceptional
Functions/
Groups
PROPORTION OF RESPONSES Not At all
Tasks
Least
Adequately
Adequately N
%
N
%
Very Adequately
N
%
N
%
Mean N
%
Planning of
1
1
12.5
1
12.5
5
12.5
1
12.5
8
2.75
Farm Enter-
2
2
8.3
5
20.3
14
58.3
3
12.5
24
2.75
prise
3
4
15.3
6
23.0
13
50.0
4
15.3
26
2.73
7
12.0
12
20.6
32
55.1
8
13.7
58
2.74
All Groups
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Evaluating
1
1
12.5
5
62.5
1
12.5
1
12.5
8
2.75
Required
2
5
20.8
12
50.0
4
16.6
3
12.5
24
2.21
level of resource Use 3
4
15.3
18
69.2
3
11.5
1
3.8
26
2.04
10
17.2
35
60.3
8
13.8
5
8.6
All Groups
58
2.14
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Controlling and
1
0
0.0
2
28.5
limiting funds
2
2
8.3
1
mismanagement
3
2
7.6
4
9.0
All Groups
1
14.2
4
57.8
7
3.14
4.1
10
41.6
11
45.8
24
3.25
5
19.2
10
38.5
9
34.6
26
3.00
9
14.0
21
36.2
24
42.1
57
3.27
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Activating
1
3
37.5
2
25.0
1
12.5
1
12.5
8
1.75
failing
2
6
25.0
6
25.0
6
25.0
6
25.0
24
2.50
enterprise
3
8
30.1
6
23.0
6
23.0
6
23.0
26
2.38
17
29.3
14
24.1
13
22.4
13
22.4
58
2.34
All Groups
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Monitoring
1
1
25.0
2
25.0
3
37.5
1
12.5
8
2.37
Labour-Use
2
4
16.6
7
29.1
5
20.8
8
33.3
24
2.87
Schedules
3
5
19.2
9
34.6
11
42.3
1
3.8
26
2.31
11
18.9
18
31.0
19
32.7
10
17.2
58
2.48
All Groups
* Group 1 - Farm and Extension Managers at KNARDA Group 2 - Farm and Extension Managers at AKOKO-EKITI Group 3 - Farm and Extension Managers at BOAADP:
Fifty percent of the alumni chose either a positive or a negative alternative answer to the question : 'To what extent do you perceive training received during the farm management programme as contributing to skills development in the area of monitoring labour-use schedules on the farm?. While about 33% of the respondents believed that the programme contributed adequately to skills development in monitoring labour-use schedules on the farm, a little ove 17% believed it did so adequately. Similarly, while 19% of the alumni did not believe that the programme contributed to skills development in monitoring labour-use schedules on the farm, 31% believed it did so least adequately. 30 Human Resource Development
Discussion The importance of assisting farm managers through skills training in a formal setting as the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute may not be overemphasised. The majority of private management training institutes currently available in Nigeria focus on skills development in the area of maintaining corporate profit, especially-on commercial farms (Oyeneye,1980). The only public management training institute that is attempting to fulfil the yearnings of farm and extension managers in Nigeria for additional training in skills development in the area of managerial functions was evaluated here, through its alumni. The evaluation of the farm management programme by alumni of the programme raised a lot of questions about the content of the farm management course. Management trainers at ARMTI are being confronted with the need to define the objective of their training programmes to meet the needs of the day-to-day work environment of farm and extension managers. They are being asked to define what the intended course or programme is for, what the source and scope of the training content are, and how best to organize these so as to achieve pre-defined objectives. The alumni and trainees of the farm management training programme at ARMTI have indicated a short-fall in the contribution of the programme to skills development in the area of evaluating required level of resource use on the farm. Over 77% of the respondents believed that the programme does not contribute at all, or least adequately to skills development in this area. Further, a 1ittle over half of the respondents did not believe that the course contributed to activating failing enterprises on the farm. As shown in Table 1, this constitutes about 53.5%. While majority of the alumni and trainees of the programme believed that the course contributed to skills development in planning of farm enterprises and controlling and limiting funds mismanagemet, about an equal proportion of the alumni believed that the programme either did or did not contribute to skills development in monitoring labour-use schedule. The development of a management training programme relevant to the working environment and the various situations in which a farm or extension manager may find himself is very important. The farm management training programme must be participant-oriented and relevant to the needs of the trainees. In practice, this means that ARMTI-trainers must pay specific attention to the deficiencies of their programme as indicated by the alumni. The need to be relevant to the specific needs of farm and extension managers may not be taken for granted in reviewing the academic or practical content of the programme. Attempts must be made to answer such crucial questions as who will benefit, from such a review? What is the review intended for? To what degree should the course review be directed towards the needs of the current or future farm or extension managers? The extent of review to the course should be determined by the realities of the situation in which the trainees find themselves. 31. Rural Resource Development
The units under the modules discussed in the farm management programme may be organised into a field or information materials that enhance the essential skills’ development needs of the farm and extension managers. This may result in information materials that generate a training or teaching pattern in which·the trainees under the programme are as partners in a learning process with management trainers. References Adekoya, A.A. ( 1990 ). A management Training Programme in Extension Supervision and Management. Tropical Agriculture ( Trind.), 67 (4), 345-349. Alabi, J.O. (1985).Welcome Address to Participants in ARMTI's Extension Supervision and Management course, Ilorin (Unpublished manuscript). Arua, E.0. ( 1981 ). Food shortage in Nigeria: The Cooperative Way Out (Unpublished manuscript). Olayide, S.0. ( 1983 ). Implementing the National Green Revolution, in Oshuntogun, A & Ugorji, R. U. ( eds ). The Private Sector and Nigeria’s Agricultural Development. Ilorin : ARMTI Seminar Series, 4; 58-65. Oyeneye, 0. (1980). The Nature and Process of Human Development. Labour and Society, 5 (4), 269-277. Patel, A.U. (1981). Training Needs of Agricultural Managers and Responsibilities of ARMTI, in Ijere, M. O. and Idachaba, F. S. ( eds ) Managing Agricultural Development in Nigeria. Ilorin, ARMTI Seminar series, 1, 144-151. Williams; S.K.T. and Williams, C.E. ( 1971 ) Farmers' contact with Agricultural Extension Service in Western State of Nigeria. Bulletin of Rural Economics and Sociology, 6 (1), 48-49.
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