ENHANCING EFFECTIVENESS OF EXTENSION STRATEGIES: THE CASE OF MADRASAH SA BASAK (MSB) IN LANAO DEL SUR, PHILIPPINES

Abstract

Madrasah Sa Basak (MSB), a community-based and participatory educational campaign for rice production, is an extension program of Mindanao State University (MSU) and Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice). This study was conducted to evaluate the MSB particularly its effectiveness in terms of Meranao rice farmers’ awareness, knowledge, adoption of MSB practices and productivity (AKAP) and identify the farmer-related and MSB- related factors that affect the effectiveness of the MSB program. The descriptive-correlational type of research was used and data was gathered from the sixty (60) recipients of the MSB program in the province of Lanao del Sur, Philippines using a structured questionnaire and analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings revealed that MSB program is highly effective in improving clienteles’ awareness and knowledge level as they adopted the recommended MSB practices on a trial basis in attaining farm productivity. The effectiveness of the MSB program among Meranao rice farmers in Lanao del Sur, Philippines is significantly associated with availability of farm inputs, farm size, and appropriateness of MSB strategies. The MSB program is effective when implementing strategies integrate the Islamic principles using group and flexible curriculum to Meranao rice farmers who have bigger farms and are provided with farm inputs. This is an important empirical finding that demonstrates appropriateness of extension strategies in program implementation and the need for re-implementation of the MSB program over a wider coverage in collaboration with different institutions both government and non-government that could provide the varied infrastructure support vital to the effectiveness and sustainability of the MSB program.