ANALYSIS OF MAIZE FARMERS’ ACCESS TO AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION IN AIYEDIRE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OSUN STATE, NIGERIA
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Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AGROSEARCH Journal
Abstract
This study analyses maize farmers’ access to agricultural information in Aiyedire Local
Government Area of Osun state, Nigeria. The specific objectives of this study were to describe
the socio-economic characteristics of the maize farmers, identify access of maize farmers to
agricultural information, determine the level of access to agricultural information and identify
the sources of agricultural information to the maize farmers. A structured questionnaire was
used to randomly sample 105 respondents used for this study. Descriptive statistics such as
frequency distribution and percentage was used to analyse the socio-economic characteristics,
sources of information and access to agricultural information while a three-point Likert-type
scale was used to analyse the level of access of the maize farmers to agricultural information
The result showed that the majority (87.6%) of the farmers were male, married (84.4%) and
42.9% of them had secondary education. The majority of the farmers (89.5%) had farm size of
about five hectares while those with farming experience less than 10 years was 39%. Fifty eight percent of the farmers had household size of 4-6 persors and 69.5% of them had contacts
with extension agents while 49.5% of the farmers were members of agricultural organizations.
The results further showed that the farmers had access to information on improved maize
varieties, with a mean score of 2.90 while they had limited access to information on mechanized
method of harvesting maize, with mean score of 1.07. Therefore, the study recommends that
extension agencies should provide up-to-date information on new and improved technological
implement like sheller, tractors, among others, for maize farmers.
Description
Keywords
access, Agricultural information, farmers