Summary
The study was carried out to assess the influence of agricultural extension delivery and advisory services on household food security in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State. A survey of 120 farmers reveals that the majority of farmers were male, the mean age of the farmers was 43 years. Also, most of the farmers are literate, Christians and married, majority of the farmers have attained tertiary education whose major occupation are farming, the average age of farm experience were 1-5 hectare and 11 years respectively. Majority (62.5%) were not members of association with annual income between ₦100,000 and ₦2,099,999.
The study further explains how several extension methods namely farm visit, home visit, office call, personal call, personal call, result demonstration, training meetings, conference, field trips, bulletin, leaflets, circular, radio, television, exhibition and poster influence the agriculture and agricultural practices of farming household. The major source of education of the use of inputs were encouraged by farm visit and circular respectively, education on production incentives were mostly encouraged by home visit, education on proper handling procedure were mostly encouraged by office call and conferences, education on positive health behaviour were mostly encouraged by personal call and bulletin, education on produce property and storage capacity were mostly encouraged by leaflets, major primary processing practices was shown by result demonstration and field trips secondary processing practices were introduced by training meetings and field trips and education on nutrition was through radio.
The study shows that despite the agricultural extension delivery services provided by extension agents, the food security status of the household remains poor with less than (1%) remains food secure, (37.5%) are food insecure without hunger, (16.7%) are food insecure with moderate hunger and (45%) are food insecure with severe hunger.
