Analysis of maize farmers' access to agricultural information in Aiyedire local government area, Osun State, Nigeria

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. Keywords : Agricultural Information, Access, Maize Farmers, Nigeria