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.
8 pages., via online journal., This study seeks to explore the influence of forms of communication on the performance of field workers in Finlay Flowers Kericho, focusing on the Communication process and quality management in flower production. The study was conducted at Finlay Flowers one of the leading producer of cut flowers in Kenya. A total of 145 respondents were selected from a population of 1,175 interacting groups comprising of middle level managers and field workers. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires and an interview schedule and collected data was analysed using Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Findings revealed that all forms of communications had influence on performance of field staff with demonstrations appearing to be more influential in this regard. This is attributed to the fact that demonstration is a consultative event where the management directly involves the employees and advice on the specifications or product requirements. In conclusion, main driver of performance as revealed by the findings of the study meaningful communication process; senior management communication style, supportive work environment and line management style. Based on the findings, the study recommends that in order to improve performance, demonstration as a form of communication should be encouraged, as workers need detailed information on how to conduct their duties especially when handling the produce, also the use of interactive methods as forms of passing messages will help in improving production efficiency.
6 pages., ISSN: 2311-6110, via online journal., Agricultural universities invest substantial resources in postgraduate research that generate knowledge products. These are aimed at providing solutions to practical constraints impeding increased productivity in the agricultural sector, which plays a vital role in Kenya's economic development. Using a case study of Egerton University, this study aimed to determine the strategies most frequently used to share the generated knowledge products, and to find out their preferences of the knowledge sharing strategies in use. The actors' perception of the relevance and accessibility of the knowledge products generated at the University was also examined. The study was conducted through desktop study which reviewed the Masters and Doctorate Theses that targeted livestock value chain actors generated between January 2005 and December 2011. A survey was conducted using structured questionnaires to collect data from a sample size of 198 actors. The findings indicated that the knowledge products were 25 to 29 times more likely (P<0.001) to be disseminated through the library than any other sharing strategy examined. The sampled actors in livestock value chain perceived media briefs to be the most accessible with a mean of 4.26. The Masters Theses were perceived as more relevant to their needs with a mean of 4.07. The findings indicate that the livestock value chain actors were not fully utilizing the knowledge sharing strategies used to reach them. The study concluded that the defined primary beneficiaries of knowledge products from the university were not effectively reached.
8 pages., via online journal., Land degradation and soil nutrient depletion have become serious threats to agricultural productivity in sub- Saharan Africa. To improve agriculture production, research has led to recommendation of a range of integrated Soil fertility Management (ISFM) options, of proven effectiveness, for soil fertility improvement. Although many factors contribute to the low adoption of ISFM by farmers, communication gaps between extension agents and farmers lie at the heart of the problem. Hence, the study sought to investigate factors considered by agricultural extension agents in selection of communication channels to disseminate soil fertility information in the central highlands of Kenya. Structured questionnaires were used to elicit information from 105 extension agents. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. In choosing the communication method to be used in dissemination of soil fertility management (SFM) practices, target group was scored as the most relevant factor followed by type of SFM, time available then number of staff sequentially. Education was perceived to highly influence the selection of workshop (M= 3.4) while age was perceived to highly influence the selection of video showing (M= 2.8) as extension methods in dissemination of SFM. The implication of the study is that diverse communication channels should be utilized to get to farmers of different socio economic characteristics.
