ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND RURAL FARMERS’ EMPOWERMENT IN OYO TOWNSHIP

Abstract

This study investigated environmental education and rural farmers’ empowerment in Oyo Township. The issue of low adequate environmental knowledge among the rural farmers has become a subject of debate among stakeholders in recent times. The essence of environmental education is to increase public knowledge and awareness about environmental issues and to provide faults, opinions or the skills to make rational decisions and implement actions in the environment. The population for the study consisted of all rural farmers in Oyo Township. One hundred adult rural farmers represented the sample for the study. Two research questions were raised to guide the study. The instruments titled “Environmental Education Questionnaire” (r = 0.79), and “Rural Farmers’ Empowerment Questionnaire” (r = 0.81) were used to gather relevant data for the study. The validity of the instrument was done by expert in Measurement and Evaluation through checking of the questionnaire and made necessary corrections to establish its validity. Test re-test method was carried out on the instruments on the interval of two weeks. Simple Percentage was used to analyse the data collected. The findings of the study revealed that the level of adult rural farmers’ environmental education was low. Also, it was indicated that environmental education contributes significantly to rural farmers’ empowerment. Based on the findings of this study, recommendations were made which include rural farmers should be enlightened to embrace environmental education as a means of empowerment. Also, government should create enabling environment for environmental education for rural farmers in order to be enlightened on ways of coping with environmental challenges.