Challenges Facing Public Libraries In Information Literacy Development Of Farmers In Nigeria: The Case Of Idima Abam, Arochukwu Local Government Area Of Abia State:- Agbo Amaoge D

ABSTRACT his study investigated of the challenges faced by public libraries in information literacy development offarmers in IdimaAbam,-Arochukwu Local governmentArea ofAbia State. Five specific objectives guided the study. The study adopted the descriptive sui vey design with a population of 75 farmers from six (6) registered farmers' cooperative societies and associations. The entire population was usedfor the study. The instrumentsfor data collection was focused group discussion. The data collected were analyzed qualitatively and presented using descriptive illustration and interview. The findings revealed that the information needs of farmers in Idima Abam include: information on agricultural loans/credil facilities, injormation on types offertilizer and its application, injormation on marketing ofagricultural products among others. It also revealed that the sources ofinformation for the farmers were agricultural extension officers/agents, radio, mobile phones, farmers' cooperative societies/ associations, friends/relatives among others. The finding of the study disclosed that the farmers' information literacy level is not quite high because a lot offarmers barelypossess the skills ofaccessing, recognizing, locating and utilizing information in solving variousfarming needs, independently. The findings further revealed that the roles of public libraries in information literacy development offarmers include: providing information resources and services tofarmers, promoting agriculturalliteracy activities andprogrammes amongfarmers, supporting self-conducted and lifelong learning offarmers among others. Thefindings equally revealed that the challenges militating against the role ofpublic library in information literacy development offarmers include: low level offarmers’ income, inadequate financial allocation Io public libraries, low literacy level offarmers in terms ofreading and understanding English language among others. The study recommended that governments at all levels should endeavour to make adequate financial provision and allocation to public libraries in order to finance information literacy trainingprogrammes tofarmers.