Musa, Idris Gomna2023-12-112023-12-112021-06-22A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, NASARAWA STATE UNIVERSITY KEFFI IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE (M.Sc.) IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND COMMUNICATIONhttps://keffi.nsuk.edu.ng/handle/20.500.14448/2944In the face of declining efficiency of the public extension system in Nigeria, the willingness of beneficiaries and stakeholders to pay for extension can help direct policy for the establishment of a strong private extension system in Nigeria. The study investigated the willingness to pay for private extension services by crop farmers in the federal capital territory (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from 180 respondents using a structured interview schedule. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used including ordinal logistic regression and Kuppuswamy socioeconomic scale. The mean age of respondents in the study was 39 years. The mean annual income of the respondents was N504,811.1. The average household size in the area was observed to be relatively high, an average of 8 persons per household. Majority of the respondents (69.4%) had no access to credits while 30.6% had access. Majority (91.6%) of the respondents had very high WTP for private agricultural advisory services. Socioeconomic factors influencing crop farmers’ willingness to pay for private extension were age (p=0.10), income (p=0.05), membership of cooperatives (p=0.05) and frequency of extension visits (p=0.01). Most respondents were willing to pay for private extension. It was recommended that in designing viable private extension system, we must design an extension that is result-oriented and strictly targeting to solve perceived and expressed problems of the smallholder farmers in Nigeria; as the study has shown, respondents will purchase only the services they require the most at any given time.enThesis