TRAINING NEED ASSESSMENT OF FINAL YEAR STUDENTS OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION OF AMBO UNIVERSITY, AMBO, ETHIOPIA, ON CYBER EXTENSION TOOLS

In Africa, agriculture provides a livelihood for most of the 75 percent of the people who live in rural areas. One of the causes of the low incomes in rural Africa is the low productivity of agriculture. Lack of technological and market information has been given as the major reason for the low productivity in African agriculture. Agricultural extension can play a critical role in the transformation process to transfer technology, support learning, assist farmers in problem-solving, and enable farmers to become more actively embedded in the agricultural knowledge and information system. Cyber extension systems in Agriculture involves effective use of ICT, local & international information networks, the internet, multimedia learning systems and computer experts to ameliorate information access to the rural farmers, extension workers, research scientists, universities etc. For the efficient delivery of information, the extension officers should have sufficient knowledge of and skill in using the cyber extension tools. Today's students will be the future extension officers. Therefore, the final year students of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension were assessed on the awareness, knowledge and skill in using cyber extension tools. The 32 students of Rural Development & Agricultural Extension enrolled in the final year in the Department of Rural Development & Agricultural Extension, Ambo University, and Ambo, Ethiopia were selected as the respondents. The responses from 29 students were obtained. The responses were tabulated and frequency and percentage were used to analyse the data. Based on the need assessment study conducted it is concluded that majority of the students did not possess sufficient knowledge of and skill in using cyber extension tools. Therefore, it recommended that a training programme should be arranged on cyber extension in order to equip the students to face the requirements of the job industry. Also, it is recommended that the cyber extension should be built as a part of the curriculum in the future so that the students will be better prepared to meet the requirements of the job.