7 pages., Via online journal, The study assessed the awareness and use of e-resources among public
extension personnel in the area. Stratified sampling technique was used in
selecting respondents from each cadre of the Anambra State Agricultural
Development Programme (ASADEP). A total of sixty-nine (69) agricultural
extension staff was used for the study. Findings show the major e-resource tool
that was available to the majority (94.2%) of extension staff in the area was
mobile phone, while 62.3% indicated that computer was available to them. The
majority (69.6%) of the respondents were each aware of Facebook, and email,
while 56.5% were aware of twitter. Among those who were aware of email, the
majority (59.4%) indicated they used it while 43.5% of those that were aware of
Facebook indicated they used it. Results show that 15.9% of the respondents
indicated they used e-journal in exchanging information on pests and diseases,
10.1% exchanged weather and climate information on e-mail, while 11.6% each
indicated they used email to exchange information on farm inputs and market
prices. On the other hand, 10.1% each used e-journal and e-mail to exchange
information on processing methods. The study concluded by drawing attention
to the very low adoption of e-resources in extension service delivery in the area.
Efforts should be made by both federal and state governments to provide
enabling technological environment and training opportunities for extension
personnel in order to improve e-extension which is a veritable alternative
towards solving the issues of dearth in extension staff that has been a persistent
problem plaguing extension service in the country.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08786
Notes:
Pages 71-89 in Gordon, Iain J. Prins, Herbert H.T. Squire, Geoff R. (eds.), Food production and nature conservation: conflicts and solutions. United Kingdom: Routledge, London. 348 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08824
Notes:
Pages 879-903 in Rob Roggema (ed.), Agriculture in an urbanizing society volume two: proceedings of the sixth AESOP conference on sustainable food planning. United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Pages 601-1274.
10 pages, The study was focused on identifying sources of agricultural information and analyzing challenges faced by smallholder farmers in accessing agricultural information in Southern Ethiopia. To achieve the stated objectives the study district was selected purposively from Wolaita zone by selecting five kebeles randomly. At the end, a total of 150 sample households were randomly selected from these five kebeles. To collect the data both primary and secondary sources were used for the purpose of this study. Primary data were collected directly from sample respondents through structured and semi-structured interview schedules, observation and focus group discussions. Secondary data were collected from Woreda agriculture and rural development office report, and other relevant books, journal articles and the Internet. After the relevant data were collected, the descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency, and percentage, and the inferential statistics such as chi-square tests were also used. The findings indicate that female farmers, illiteracy, location of market center, information seeking behavior of farmers, low rate of extension-farmers linkages, inadequate operational skill of aids, language barriers, lack of training, lack of rural electrification, lack of development agents, absence of rural networks, inadequate reading materials, and inappropriate time of broadcasting are the main challenges smallholder farmers were faced with. Therefore, to overcome the challenges strong commitment and reformation should be done in the study area by the concerned stakeholders.
