Agricultural Information Seeking Behavior of Rural Farmers in Kainji Lake Basin, Nigeria
Ogundana O.S.
Department of Agricultural Technology
Federal College of Freshwater Fisheries Technology, P.M.B. 1500, New Bussa, Niger State
E-mail: odunmansam@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the Agricultural information seeking behavior of rural farmers in Kainji Lake Basin. The study aimed at investigating the Agricultural information seeking behavior of the rural farmers. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. A total of 160 rural farmers from four districts (Bussa, Dogongari, Wawa and Kuruwasa) formed the sample population of the survey. Purposive sampling technique was used to select sample for the study. A structured interview and questionnaire was used to bring out information from respondents. The findings showed that among the 160 respondents, 47% of them are 31-40years of age, 19% of the respondents are 41-50years of age, 16% of the respondents are below 30years of age, among others. The study also revealed majority of the have Qur’anic school education with 54% of them admitting that they are Qur’anic school certificate holders. The study shows that 89% of the respondents belong to one or two farmers’ association. The study clearly revealed that the majority source of Agricultural information for the respondents is friends and family members with 96% of the respondents attesting to that, another 86% of the respondents indicated Age groups as their source of information. The study revealed that the major use of Agricultural information by respondents was to improve their farm operation, with 71.9% of respondents, improve access to credit facility with 74.4% of respondents rarely use the information. It is clear from the study that language barriers is the major barrier to the access of Agricultural information by respondents with 86%, illiteracy with 61% of respondents, lack of time with 54% respondents, among others. The study revealed that 79.4% of the respondents attesting to high or favorable Agricultural information seeking behavior while 20.6% of the respondents have low or unfavorable Agricultural information seeking behavior. Based on the results, recommendations were put forward to enhance access to Agricultural information by farmers in the rural areas.
Keywords: Agriculture, seeking-behavior, rural farming, Kainji lake, impoundment.
