ABSTRACT

The study examined the socio-economic characteristics affecting information source use among farmers in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to ascertain the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers in the study area; determine the available information source; identify the extent of usage of information sources by farmers; assess farmers' attitude towards the use of information sources and; identify the constraints encountered by farmers in using information sources. Eighty-two (82) farmers were selected from the two agricultural blocks in the Local Government Area using purposive sampling method. Structured questionnaire and Focus group discussion were used to elicit information from the respondents. Frequency distributions, percentage, mean and regression analyses were employed to analyze the data collected. Results showed that the area was fairly dominated by males (52.44%). The respondents had a mean age of 46 years. About 85.37% of the respondents were married with a mean household size of 5 members. The findings also revealed that 84.15% of the respondents had some form of formal education indicating that they were literate. The farmers had a mean farming experience of 11 years with a farmer earning an average income of N86,735.71k per annum. 20.73% of the respondents belong to cooperative society. About 60.98% of the respondents had some contacts with the extension agents. It was also revealed that the level of available information sources (36.25%) was poor. The mean extent of usage for indigenous information sources was 1.2 and 1.1 for modern sources. The results also showed that the respondents showed equal positive attitude (2.0) to both indigenous and modern source. The factors that significantly influenced the use of information sources were marital status (3.54) and household size (3.62) at 1% level of probability and education (1.74) at 10% level of probability. Among the major constraints that affected the use of modern information sources were:, high cost of mass media (2.7), lack of access to mass media information (2.7) and unstable electric powers supply (2.7). The study recommended that Government, agricultural research institutes, agricultural universities and non-governmental organizations should provide more information on agriculture to farmers. Communication centers should be provided to increase farmers' access to information. Government should ensure continuity of agricultural information policies in order to encourage positive attitude towards agriculture. Modern information sources should be repackaged in a format and language more appropriate to famers to increase its usage.