Information seeking behaviour of fish farmers in Oyo State

Abstract

The technical nature of fish farming requires that the knowledge of practitioners are constantly updated and this can be achieved through their enhanced information seeking behaviour as information use of fish farmers is crucial for effectively meeting their information needs. This study, thus, determined the information seeking behaviour among fish farmers in Oyo – State. One hundred and twenty respondents were interviewed for the study. These were selected from Ibadan/Ibarapa zone of Oyo State ADP using simple random sampling for registered farmers and snowball technique to compile list from which equal number of unregistered farmers were chosen as respondents. The relationship between personal characteristics such as age, educational attainment, marital status and information seeking behaviour was determined using chi-square. Also, the significant difference between level of production of respondents with high and low information seeking was determined using t-test statistics. Results showed that 89.2 percent of the respondents were married and 84.2 percent had formal education, and with mean age of 46 years. Fish farming was their main income generating activity. The registered farmers updated their knowledge often from different sources
most especially from extension agents. Age (X2 =87. 083, p<0.05), marital status (X2=168.35, p<0.05), and educational status (X2=86.97, p<0.05) were significantly related to information seeking behaviour of respondents.. There existed a significant difference between level of production of respondents with high and low information seeking behaviour (t = 3.48, p < 0.05). This may be attributable to most respondents updating their knowledge on fish farming.