Accuracy, relevance and timeliness: does extension practitioners satisfy clients? a case of farmers in Nkonkobe, South Africa.

Abstract

The study investigated the perception of the farmers in relation to the three dimensions: accuracy, relevance and timeliness of extension service delivery. The objectives of this study were: To determine the farmers’ assessment of extension services in the dimension of accuracy, relevance and timeliness. To investigate the extension experience and contacts in the last 6 months Random sampling was used to select 900 farming households. The 5- point Likert scale was used to measure the level of satisfaction derived from the extension services. Findings revealed that contacts with extension practitioners were 22.22 percent, while seminar and workshop contact was the highest with 74.44 percent. The dimension of satisfaction varied: on accuracy results showed that 11.11 percent of the respondents were very satisfied while 16.88 percent were satisfied with a p-value = 0.01. The relevance dimension of extension services were 17.11 percent very satisfied and 13.33 percent satisfied (p-value =0.21). The paper concluded that the awareness and satisfaction derived from the services offered by the extension practitioners are gradually gaining momentum and relevancy amongst the organisation.