Agricultural and nutritional information needs of arable crop farmers in Ondo State Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed arable crop farmers’ agricultural and nutritional information needs in Ondo State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used in selecting a total sample of 212 farmers for the study. Data were collected through the use of interview schedule. Frequency counts, percentages, mean and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze data. Findings showed that the mean age of the farmers was 52.2 years. The majority (84.0%) of the respondents were male, married with low level of education and farm size. The mean household size was 6 members. The sources of agricultural and nutritional information explored by the respondents are: extension agents, mobile phone, friends and neighbors as well as radio. The respondents indicated their agricultural and nutritional information needs as to include climate and weather forecast (X̄ = 1.88), location and availability of inputs (X̄ = 1.63), information on food safety and hygiene (X̄ = 1.61), information on markets where farm produce are exchanged for other farm produce (X̄ = 1.55) and disease control (X̄ = 1.50). The result of ANOVA revealed that there exists significant difference in agricultural and nutritional information needs of the respondents across the selected agricultural zones (F= 5.137, P≤ 0.05). Information dissemination and delivery to farmers should be targeted toward the identified information needs in order to enhance their capabilities for optimum agricultural production.

Keywords: Information needs, agricultural and nutritional information, crop farmers, Nigeria