The importance of opinion leaders in agricultural production among male and female farmers of Kasenge Parish in the Mukono District of Uganda

Abstract

The paper makes an assessment of the importance of opinion leaders in farming in three rural villages of Uganda. The basic premise is that peasant farmers in Uganda, particularly the women farmers do not have adequate access to extension services due to, amongst others, the wide change agent to client ratio. In view of these problems, the role of opinion leaders is important and justifies being investigated. Using different ways of assessment this paper compares opinion leaders, who were sometimes referred to as fellow farmers, with other sources of information. The fellow farmer is identified to be a relatively more important source of information than the radio and the extension agent for both the male and female farmers. The female farmers were found to attach relatively more importance to the male opinion leader than the female opinion leader.