Trends and Challenges in Nigerian Extension Education and Research

Research in extension education is a serious and challenging task facing Nigeria today because of new trends that keeps on emerging continuously. This paper seeks to examine some of the common research techniques used in extension education and describe their applicability and workability in helping people to help themselves. Most of the researches in this area are more theoretical than the practical nature of the actual extension practice. The general aim of the paper is to identify the emerging trends and how these trends pose additional challenges to extension research and practice. Two major research approaches, Participatory Action Research in Extension (PARE) and Community Based Research (CBR) were found to be encouraging community members to make good decisions on what they feel is better for their lives. This implies that the methods are very useful, relevant and can considerably increase the community effectiveness with enduring by the researchers' to employ them despite their long-time requirements.