Abstract

The study was carried out in Bogoro local Government Area of Bauchi State to assess the use of recommended extension practices among hungry rice Acha (Digitaria exillis) producers. Three wards were selected from each of two districts; while two villages were selected from each of the six wards making a total of twelve villages to be sampled. A structured questionnaire was designed and distributed to 185 respondents proportionally. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and three rating scale type statistics. The result shows that majority of the respondents were married (82.49%), between 31-50 years (79.66%), female (82.49%), with family size of (5±1.49). majority of the Acha farmers had one form of education or the other (94.91%), had farming experience of (9±2.66) years, with farm size of (4±1.26)ha implied that the Acha farmers in the study area are still operating at a subsistent level. The results also indicated that majority of the Acha farmers were aware of the recommended extension practices on Acha (98.31%) for between 5 and 7 years (69.49%), mostly through extension agents (61.58%). From the nine recommended extension practices on Acha production tested, the result revealed that five were effective. The use of improved Acha seed, use of recommended seed rate, use of recommended planting time, use of recommended fertilizer and use of correct harvesting time. While four of the practices were not effective use of seed treatment chemical, use of recommended fertilizer rate, use of pesticide, use of herbicide. It is therefore, recommended that extension agents should focused on training Acha farmers on use of four recommended extension practices. use of seed treatment chemical, use of fertilizer rate, use of herbicide and use of pesticide in order to increase their Acha production in the study area.