ABSTRACT
Extension became a formal, specialized public service function in Nigeria only in the 1950s, though well before that date colonial agricultural officers had been doing some “educational” or “propaganda” work among Nigerian farmers. Nigerian officials sought to improve the performance of Specialized ministerial units. Nigeria is by far the most populous state in sub-Saharan Africa, representing up to one-quarter the region’s total population. The forces pulling Nigeria apart stimulated a centripetal reaction. Nigerian peasants worked with simple hand tools, practiced intercropping, and used shifting cultivation techniques. The anti-agricultural policies of the marketing boards were but one example of a general “urban bias” in Nigerian politics. As Nigeria began to prepare for independence, there was a change worldwide in expert opinion about the value of extension. The colonial power had been sufficiently insulated from domestic opinion that it could wait for better research results to come along, and postpone indefinitely any major push on extension.
