Perceived effects of Job Stress and Coping Strategies of Agricultural Extension Professionals in Anambra and Abia States of Nigeria

The study assessed the job stress and coping strategies among agricultural extension professionals (AEPs) in Anambra and Abia States, Nigeria. Perceived effects of job stress; socio-economic characteristics influence on job stress level and job stress coping strategies of the respondents were assessed. Data were collected using 202 respondents, multistage sampling method and validated questionnaire. Descriptive and Tobit regression statistics were employed in data analysis. Results reveal that, the first three effects of job stress among the officers in Anambra State were feeling of fear (80.4%), lack of sleep (79.4%) and mistake making (72.5%) while those of Abia State were feeling of fear (84.0%), mistake making (75.0%) and poor memory (71.0%). The result of the influence of the level of job stress among agricultural extension professionals in Anambra State revealed that 10% advancement in position will reduce their stress level by 0.2%. In Abia State, the pseudo R2 of 0.35 indicates that 35.2% of the deviation in the level of job stress is influenced by the agricultural extension professional’s socio-economic characteristics. The results also shows that the Anambra AEPs coping strategies were positive thinking (100%), entertainment (92.2%) and watching television (91.2%) while those of Abia were positive thinking (100%) and entertainment (90.0%). To reduce AEPs job stress effects, government needs to establish agricultural extension policy that will target AEPs’ reduced self-role distance, increased rest and fear reduction strategies which will include electronic agricultural extension, security trainings/services and appropriate leave opportunities.