5 pages, Information plays important role in agriculture development. This study investigated the nature
and extent of available agricultural information sources and information seeking patterns of farmers in Punjab Pakistan. To conduct this study, survey method was used and the population of
the study was the farmers of Punjab, the largest province of Pakistan. The sample of 60 farmers
was selected during the year 2020 by using convenient sampling technique. Furthermore, these farmers were selected from Attock, Kasur and Bahawalnagar to ensure the representation from northern, central, and southern parts of the province of Punjab. The responses of the framers were collected in the form of questionnaire and researcher used adopted descriptive statistics. Results revealed that majority 41 percent of farmers seek information to enhance
their agricultural knowledge. It was found that comparatively interpersonal channels were mostly
preferred with the 56 percent whereas mass media occupied second position with 42 percent. It was also found that numerous types of information sources such as interpersonal sources, mass media and new media were available to disseminate information related to farmers’ needs. It was also revealed that among information needs, market and weather forecast trends were on top priority ranked 1st and 2nd respectively.
33 pages, This study used an in-depth interview and information horizon maps to investigate information seeking behavior of 15 farmers in Central Taiwan. The results show that increased work roles led to more categories of information needed by farmers. Six types of information sources were used by farmers to obtain agricultural information. Interpersonal network was the most preferred information source by farmers. Especially, most farmers contacted other farmers first. Requesting agricultural organizations and farmer groups was the second preferred information source, followed by searching the Internet. Few farmers obtained information from libraries. Several factors affected farmers to select information sources. In addition, barriers to seeking agricultural information faced by farmers were identified. To strengthen the effect of agricultural information dissemination, some suggestions were made. Government agencies related to agriculture should focus the greatest influence of interpersonal network on disseminating agriculture information and improve the communication between agricultural extension agents and farmers. The content and time of agricultural courses were set based on farmers' needs. Improving farmers' information literacy is an essential issue as well.
24 pages., Online via UI e-subscription, Three experiments examined how available resources and the resource burden of responding to an environmental peril affect the perceived burden of taking action, and how perceiving burden, in turn, affects avoidance of information about the threat. Findings demonstrated that facing a high mitigation burden (e.g., costs of hurricane damage recovery and home air quality systems) and lack of resources can lead to remaining uninformed. Findings also identified a potential pathway for intervention.
19 pages., Information is an important factor in agricultural development. The study investigated farmers’ agricultural information needs and seeking behavior in the Southern Regional State of Ethiopia. A cross-sectional research design was employed and the study population included all household heads of the eight sampled villages in four administrative zones. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to obtain a sample of 320 farmers. Quantitative data were collected and research adopted descriptive statistics. The results revealed information on crop production technologies; information about diseases, pests and weather forecasts, and market information were identified as the top three most important types of agricultural information. Similarly, crop production technologies; animal husbandry technologies, and information about agricultural inputs were the information farmers seek frequently. Farmers use development agents as the first source of agricultural information. All of the respondents communicate with development agents face-to-face.
