Original Research Article

Assessment of Extension Service Delivery on Small Ruminants (Sheep and Goat) Production in Tonkolili, Falaba, and Koinadugu Districts Northern Sierra Leone

Sessie T. D., Sankoh E. A., ^*Johnson J. A.

Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology Njala University, Sierra Leone

*Corresponding Author's Email: ajohnson@njala.edu.sl
Tell: +232 076727989

Received: 19 May 2023  I  Accepted: 21 June 2023  I  Published: 28 June 2023  I  Article ID: MRJASSS23020
Copyright © 2023 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.

Abstract

The study assesses the extension service delivery on small ruminants’ production in three districts North of Sierra Leone. A mix method design was adopted to assured triangulation, the sample size is 350 in the three selected districts from which; 250 came from Tonkolili, 50 each from Koinadugu and Falaba Districts. A multistage stage sampling was used to select respondents from each of the districts. Analysis of the data was done using excel, and SPSS and the result were presented in tables. The findings of the study show that; the dominants ruminants’ farmers are males, and most of the farmers are married, their yearly income in the enterprise is within Le500-1000.00. they are into other livelihood activities apart from small ruminants’ production, and non-formal form of education is the most prolific among respondents in the districts. Majority of the farmers had knowledge on health of animals and could use certain techniques to detect disease in small ruminants. Most livestock farmers talked on the availability of forage and browse plants year-round though they were challenged with labour shortage. Small ruminants’ farmers are aware of extension services, though they had no source of information and extension services. It is concluded that though farmers are aware of extension services, but they find it hard to access extension services, since most of the extension work is focused on crops. The recommendation is extension wing in Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), NGOs and Private bodies need to start looking in to small ruminants raising.

Keywords: Production and Herd size, Ruminant, Status, Tethered