BUSINESSDAYONLINE –
The National Agriculture Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) is test-running e-extension and e-library services in an effort to boost agriculture and ensure food security.
An official of NAERLS Ismail Olawale, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Saturday.
Olawale, the Team Leader in charge of Traditional Media, E-Extension Department of NAERLS, said that test-running of the e-extension followed the recent creation of National Farmers Helpline (NFHL).
NAN reports that NFHL was launched in January by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbe, to provide adequate extension services to farmers across the country.
“Extension services in Nigeria, at present, are facing series of problems. What extension practitioners are doing now is to augment their services using e-extension.
“E-extension involves giving farmers extension services through the internet or social media platforms and various media,’’ Olawale told NAN.
He said the extension officers currently in service were getting old.
Sixty-seven to 70 per cent of extension officers are old people, and many of them have not been exposed to modern ways of extension in the last 10 to 15 years.
Read more at: http://www.businessdayonline.com/agency-test-runs-e-extension-e-library-farmers-officers-age/