(a) Mention three print and three electronic media used in disseminating agricultural extension messages. (b) State four advantages of group method of agric...

Answer Details

This question tests knowledge of agricultural extension communication channels, the value of teaching farmers in organised groups, one of the recognised functions performed in agricultural marketing, and the identification and control of two important field-crop diseases. Each part is answered directly below.

(a) Three print and three electronic media for disseminating extension messages

Print media carry the message in a written or drawn form that the reader sees on paper:

• Newspapers
• Agricultural magazines, journals or bulletins
• Posters, leaflets, handbills or pamphlets

Electronic media carry the message as sound or moving pictures through electronic devices:

• Radio broadcasts
• Television programmes
• Mobile phone or internet services (including films and video shown on projectors or screens)

(b) Four advantages of the group method of agricultural extension

1. It reaches many farmers at the same time, so the agent's time, effort and money are used economically.
2. Farmers learn from one another, exchanging ideas, questions and practical experience during the session.
3. Peer influence and group discussion build confidence and speed up the adoption of new practices, because a farmer is more willing to try an innovation that fellow farmers accept.
4. Fewer extension agents are needed to cover a large number of farmers, easing the shortage of trained personnel.

(c) Assembling as a marketing function

Assembling is the marketing function of collecting the small quantities of produce that individual farmers grow in many scattered locations and bringing them together into large, economic lots at a central point such as an assembly market or collection depot. This bulking makes later marketing functions such as grading, storage, transport in full loads and sale to wholesalers cheaper and easier than dealing with each farmer's tiny quantity separately.

(d) Symptoms and control measures of the two crop diseases

Examination note: In part (a) keep print and electronic media strictly separate, a poster is print while a film shown on a screen is electronic. In part (d) always name a visible symptom, not the pathogen, and pair vector control (spraying the insect that carries the virus) with sanitation (removing infected plants), because both viral diseases here are insect-transmitted.