10 pages, Agricultural information is very essential for smallholder farmers to increase farm production and productivity. However, there is no proper access to accurate and adequate agricultural information to smallholder farmers. This paper attempts to identify the existing agricultural information source and the agricultural information need of the smallholder farmers along with usefulness of the provided agricultural information. Household level data were obtained from four wards of Bharatpur metropolitan of Chitwan district during 2019. The result showed agrovet shops as most common source of agricultural information for smallholder farmers. The most needed agricultural information was about input market and prices followed by disease and pest control. Moderately useful agricultural information was provided to smallholder farmers. Findings of this research suggest that context specific agricultural information should be provided through the existing channels to the smallholder farmers.
8 pages., via online journal., Social media provides huge opportunities and incentives that could ease promotion of agricultural extension, facilitate real-time service delivery and enable wider farmer coverage. Ineffective dissemination approaches, expanding farmer population, low staffing, and aging agricultural extension agents continue to negatively affect the provision of agricultural extension services in Kenya. Despite the social media potential in agricultural communication, lack of awareness and low usage in the rural areas of developing countries have been documented. This study sought to establish the level of social media familiarity among smallholder rural farmers with the aim of exploring the possibility of usage in agricultural extension. The study was undertaken in Thika Sub-County of Kiambu County on 140 farmers through a researcher administered semi-structured questionnaire. Probability-proportional-to-size sampling method was employed to derive the sample size from existing extension farmer groups. Simple random sampling technique was further used to identify the actual respondents from each group. A low level of social media familiarity was established among the farmers with education, age and gender having significant influence. The study recommends awareness creation initiatives to promote social media familiarity with a particular focus on women who form the bulk of the farmers but with the lowest level of social media knowledge.
12 pages., Agriculture play significant role towards sustainability of developing nations’ economy particularly Nigeria by providing abundant raw materials required by the industry, as well as ensures food security and a healthy nation. This study examines the challenges of accessing agricultural information sources and services by farmers in Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State. Survey method was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprise of 16066 from which 78 farmers of the study area were selected using stratified random sampling and purposive sampling procedure. From the copies of questionnaires administered only 60 were duly completed and returned. Frequency and percentages were used in analyzing data collected. The findings from the study showed that information needs of farmers among others include application of improve techniques, irrigation management, seeds prices, farm wild fire management and prevention, purchase and use of fertilizer, government blueprint on agriculture, and meteorology information need of farmers in Edu Local Government . The findings further revealed that poor communication system, absence of library and information centre, absence of extension agents, insufficient knowledge on marketing of farm produce , insufficient credit facilities, insufficient information on government policies, insufficient fund were the challenges faced by farmers in accessing agricultural information sources and services. The study recommended among others that central facility providing and disseminating information on agricultural related services should be created in the study area that would be accessible to all farmers in order to meet their information needs.
12 pages., via online journal., This study explored the factors influencing the application of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) among farmers in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
The Punjab province is divided into three agro-ecological zones viz Northern, Central and
Southern. In this study, one district from each zone was randomly selected. Total sample
size comprises of 150 farmers. Farmers were interviewed using a self-administered
interview schedule comprising of open and close-ended questions. Respondents’ access to
ICTs was low level. Chi-square test revealed a significant association between the age of
respondents and adoption of ICTs. Young respondents were leading users of ICTs in the
study area. Size of landholding and income level of the respondents had a significant
association with the frequency of use of ICTs in agriculture. Among various ICTs tools,
mobile/cell phone attracted 47.3% of respondents to access agricultural information. Factors
militating use of ICTs include; electricity/power issues (x̄=2.95/3.00), language barriers
(x̄=2.93/3.00), limited knowledge and skills about ICTs (x̄=2.89/3.00), high cost
(x̄=2.87/3.00) and limited availability of ICTs (x̄=2.85/3.00). Extent of ICTs use to access
agricultural information can surge with t
7 pages., Agricultural information sources play a pragmatic role in knowledge building among the farming community. Farmers use various traditional and modern information sources such as extension field staff, fellow farmers, private sector, electronic media, print media, and information communication technologies (ICTs) gadgets to get the latest information necessary for agricultural productivity. This study aimed to explore the patterns of farmers to access and receive information from different sources. A well-structured and expert reviewed interview schedule was used to collect data from farmers from Huailai county. A total of 122 interviews were conducted for the collection of data. Data were recorded using EpiData software program and a logistic regression model was applied using the computer-based statistical program “STATA”. The findings indicate that media (electronic media and print media) was the key information source for the farmers and 40.16% of farmers accessed media particularly for agricultural information whereas 34.43% used agricultural extension field staff (government) to acquire agricultural information. The government of China should start some educational interventions for farmers to improve their educational level so that the farming community could utilize multiple information sources for crop productivity.
7 pages., The study highlighted the information needs and information sources used by the farmers of Kurukshetra district. Data were elicited through the questionnaire. All the farmers needed information on availability and use of pesticides, fertilizers for the crop, disease, pest, weed control, knowing and selling market prices of crops followed by government schemes/policies (98.1%), variety and new cropping system, availability of seeds (96.2%), Agricultural loan (73.1%), weather/weather forecast (73.1%), etc. The majority of the respondents (59.6%) were using newspapers in which Dainik Bhaskar (46.2%) was the first choice of farmers and (30.8%) banners and wall paintings were also assisted. Mobile phones (69.2%) and Television (67.3%) were major electronic sources among them. All the respondents were using these sources to increase agricultural production, availability and know the current market prices. While (90.4%) were using proper use of fertilizers/medicines/pesticides and curing diseases followed by (82.7%) know about new agricultural technology, weather (76.9%). Insufficient information literacy, information communication technology (ICT) skills (87.7%), and inadequate training opportunities (61.5%) were the main constraints faced by farmers. Satisfaction was high in electronic sources (53.8%) than print information (23.1%) sources for their agricultural information among the farmers of Kurukshetra.
14 pages., via online journal., The purpose of the study was to investigate the information needs and barriers of rural smallholder farmers in Mzimba North in Malawi. A mixed methods approach was adopted for the study and the Wilson’s Model of Information Behaviour (1996) guided the study. A questionnaire and focus group discussion guide were used to collect data from 202 rural smallholder farmers. The study found that the major information need of rural smallholder farmers was crop husbandry as revealed by the majority of rural smallholder farmers 149 (77.6). The study found that majority of rural smallholder farmers 180 (94.8%) were aware of information sources. The study also found that the predominant information sources consulted by rural smallholder farmers were personal experiences as indicated by the majority of rural smallholder farmers 185 (96%). The major challenge faced by rural smallholder farmers was lack of mobility as revealed by the majority of rural smallholder farmers 147 (76.6). The study recommends that the Department of Agriculture Extension Services (DAES) should empower the social structures such as families in rural settings with agricultural information.
7 pages., A survey was conducted to identify management information sources and communication channels used by commercially oriented smallholder beef cattle producers (n = 62) in Limpopo province, South Africa. A total of 62 commercially oriented smallholder farmers under the Limpopo Industrial Development Corporation-Nguni cattle project were interviewed using a structured questionnaire to collect data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse data on farmers’ demographic and farm characteristics, sources of information and communication channels used. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to evaluate factors that influenced farmers’ choices of information sources and communications channels used. Findings show that government extension (53% of the respondents) and other farmers (30%) were the major sources of management information for the farmers. Based on the logistic regression results, the decision to choose government extension as the main source of information was mainly influenced by respondents’ gender (p = 0.001) and access to training (p = 0.023). Communication was mainly through farm-to-farm visits (56%) and the use of mobile phones (30%). Based on the current findings, the infusion of modern information communication technologies such as mobile phone-based innovations with the existing government extension service could further strengthen the capacity of farmers to share information among themselves as well as providing feedback to extension agents. Furthermore, it is essential to take cognizance of farmers’ socio-economic factors when identifying and characterizing their management information sources and communication strategies.
21 pgs., CTs (Communications technologies) have revolutionized agricultural information services at every level in the agricultural sector, thus impacting rural development and catalysing poverty alleviation strategies. This has largely been the case with small-scale farmers in rural areas in developing countries where mobile technologies have penetrated more than most other ICT tools. However, in some of the farming environments, mobile phone use is largely driven by agricultural extension workers. This paper seeks to examine the way mobile phones are used for information access in situations where agricultural extension workers are a critical intermediary in the agricultural information services. Interviews were conducted with 10 randomly selected farmers who were part of the Dzindi irrigation scheme. The findings were that from the variety of information available to the farmers the most important source was the extension officer. The extension officer and the radio were indicated to be the most reliable independent sources of information. The other sources, such as the radio, family members, and friends, suppliers of chemicals, books and magazines, were only considered reliable if the information could be verified or vouched for by the extension officer. Increasing the information handling skills of extension officers, training of farmers to use smart features of their phones and promoting the usual face-to-face communication use of conventional methods, which is what usually gives rise to the mediation of mobile phones, were recommended.
