ASSESSMENT OF MASS MEDIA FOR DISSEMINATION OF AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION TO ARABLE CROP FARMERS IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was carried out to assess the use of mass media for the dissemination of agricultural information to arable crop farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria. The study ascertained the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, identified sources and preferred source of agricultural information through which respondents receive agricultural information, identified the perceived factors influencing the use of mass media as a source of agricultural information in the study area, identified the perceived constraints associated with farmers’ use of mass media and also identified various agricultural information categories desired from mass media by respondents. A Multi-stage sampling procedure was used in selecting 150 respondents for the study. Interview schedule was used in data collection. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The result of this study revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 50 years. The result of this research shows that 35.3% of the respondents had above 20 years of arable crop farming experience and mean year of the respondents farming experience was 18 years. Furthermore, the result of the study revealed that the sources from which arable crop farmers receive agricultural information in the study area were radio, television, mobile phone/social media, leaflet/bulletin with 100.0%, 92.0%, 70.7% and 45.3% respectively, The result of the study revealed that 94.7% of the respondents use radio as their source of receiving agricultural information daily. The result of the study revealed that radio was ranked as the most preferred source of receiving agricultural information with the mean score of 1.90. The result of the study revealed that the constraint to the use of mass media generally are poor electricity, too busy schedule, limited feedback, untimely feedback, poorly expressed messages, and irrelevant content. The result of the study also revealed that arable farmers desire various agricultural information categories from mass media such as land preparation techniques (98.7%), climate change (100%), planting date (97.3%), crop spacing (94.7%), linkages to agricultural input (86.7%), correct fertilizer application (78.7%), correct herbicide application (84.0%), improved techniques of crops and animal (92.0%), current market price (96.0%), storage of their farm products (90.0%), nutrition (80.0%) and improved processing techniques (82.7%). The result of hypothesis one revealed that there was a significant relationship between the selected socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and their preferred information source in the study area, age of the respondents (ᵡ² = 17.65; p=0.007), farm size of the respondents (ᵡ² = 18.32; p=0.000), years of experience (ᵡ² = 14.72; p=0.023), educational level of the respondents (ᵡ² = 27.26; p=0.000), membership status (ᵡ² = 19.58; p=0.000) and their preferred source of agricultural information. The result from hypothesis two revealed that there was a significant relationship between respondents’ desired information categories and sources of agricultural information (ᵡ² = 5.36; p = 0.021), The result from hypothesis three revealed that there was a significant relationship between constraint associated with farmer's use of mass media and preferred source, constraints to the use of television (r = -0.22; p <0.05), constraints to the use of radio (r = -0.36; p <0.05), constraints to the use of magazine (r = 0.73; p <0.05), constraints to the use of bulletin/leaflet (r = 0.29; p <0.05), constraints to the use of mobile phone / social media (r = -0.36; p <0.05) . The study recommends that agricultural programs should be aired more at farmers’ convenient time, probably in the evening when they would have returned from their farms, government, non-governmental organisations and private organisations should assist in the provision of community viewing center, so that every rural dweller will have the opportunity of enjoying the broadcast media, and Extension agencies should sustain and improve on the use of mass media in agricultural information dissemination.