Comparative Analysis of Researchers’, Extension Agents’ and Farmers’ Perception of the Use of Entertainment- Education (EE) for Agricultural Information Dissemination in South-Western Nigeria

Abstract

Entertainment- Education (EE) seeks to purposefully use entertainment media to educate targets about development intervention. Though, an innovative communication approach for addressing development related issues, its use and potentials for dissemination and adoption of agricultural technology has not been fully harnessed. The study was conducted to compare the perception of researchers, extension agents and farmers in southwestern Nigeria on the use of EE for agricultural information  dissemination. One hundred and sixty one respondents were sampled using multistage sampling procedure. Data were collected using  questionnaire and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Majority (72.1%) of the researchers had a high perception of the use of EE. More than half (54.7%) of the extension agents and about two-thirds (61.1%) of farmers had a low perception towards the use of EE strategy. However, there was an overall high perception of EE by 50.3% of the total respondents. Researchers, extension agents and farmers differed (F = 5.779; P < 0.05) in their perception of the use of EE for agricultural information dissemination. The overall favourable perception of use of EE for agricultural technology dissemination implies that if conscious efforts are made it offers a potent medium for agricultural information  dissemination.

Keywords: Entertainment-education, Perception, Agricultural information dissemination