A STUDY ON INFORMATION NEEDS OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORKERS IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Over the years various studies have shown that there is an existing gap between available knowledge of improved technology and the actual practice. The extension workers are responsible for the dissemination of information about these improved technology to farmer in order to bridge the gap, therefore their role is very essential .The extension workers must have access to information about the improved technology before they can disseminate these information to the farmers. In order to find ways to bridge this existing gap in improved Technology and the actual practice, this study sought to investigate the information need of the extension workers, identify the present and intended sources of information, determine the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents, determine the effectiveness of these information sources presently being used and finally determine the constraints being encountered by the respondents in the use of present information sources. The study area is Ondo state, which is a south western state in Nigeria with most of its inhabitants being farmers planting various food crops like cocoyam .yam cassava, maize among others. They plant •..ash crops like cocoa, cola nut just to mention a few. The vegetation is dominantly Rainforest with total annual rainfall of 200cm and the mean annual temperature is 800F.The population for the study is one hundred and eighty cight( 188) representing all the extension workers in Ondo state working with Agricultural Development Programme of the state. For this study total of one hundred and forty (140) of the extension workers arc selected randomly from the list of the extension workers in the state .The data for the study was collected with questionnaire and analyzed using percentages, frequencies .The hypothesis for this study were tested using chi square, t-test and Pearson product moment ~correlations. Most of the respondents (52.1 %) have low social status but they are mostly in the medium economic status (67.9%) .The results also show that the respondents need mostly technical information; under this category of information 90% ot" the respondents agreed that the) need information on provision of high yielding crops varieties. The proportion of the respondents that agree to need information on Pests and disease control are 76.4%. information on weather reports was needed by just 38.6% or the respondents. The next category at" information that was needed by the respondent was Commercial Information and Social Information closely follows this. The least sought information category is the legal Information. Based on the ranking of scores on each category of information, technical information ranked high among 63.6% "r the respondents also social information ranked high among extension workers and legal information was ranked low by 65.0% of tte respondents while general information ranked low among majority of the respondents. The information. needs of the extension workers are met by Monthly Technical Review Meetings (MTRM), books, journals, research reports and technical bulletins. conferences, seminars, workshops and superiors in the organization. The respondents ascertained that they need additional information sources in the form of a monthly bulletin/journal on agric extension services and also they want an electronic database that will hold current and valid agricultural information. Most of the respondents (62.1 %) agreed that they need monthly bulletin as additional information source. Some of the respondents (35%) agreed that they experienced one constraint or the other in "the LIse of some information sources. In the response of the extension workers. 91.8% claimed that information sources like Technical bulletins; Internet and CD ROMS are not easily accessible. Based on the scores allotted each source of information, the study reveals that information sources like Boss, research stations, books, technical bulletins were adjudged to be effective. The results of the inferential statistics show that information needs of the extension workers were influenced by their work experience but the information sources do not affect the information needs of the respondents. The present information sources were influenced by social status, economic status and household size. The Education of the respondents has influence on the preferred information sources of the respondents. There is close association on the present and future sources of information .The Pcarsor; correlation test revealed that all the categories of information are significant with each other. The study concluded that the extension workers need better access to Information technology for current and valid information and it is recommended that training in Information Technology will g a long way to improve the effectiveness of these extension workers in the discharge of their duties. Refresher courses should be organized from time to time for the workers and bottom-top communication should be encouraged so that the indigenous knowledge of the clientele will be improved. Adequately stocked libraries are needed for all the zones in the state for the extension workers to be up to date on new discoveries.