Factors affecting farmers’ decision to participate in various agricultural related information sources in Ethiopia

Abstract

Information communication technology is energetic for rural transformation and plays a great role in agricultural development. However, there are factors affecting farmers’ use of information. This study focused on determinants of various agricultural information sources. Household survey from 165 respondents and multi-stage sampling techniques were used. Multivariate probit model regression output shows that social participation and distance are significantly related with the use of all information sources at different significance levels. Age, extension contact, education, sex, credit access, land size, non/off-farm income and farm income are significant with the use of different information sources at different significance levels. The Wald test (χ2 (56) = 101.39, p = 0.000) is significant, which indicates that MVP model fits the data. LR (χ2 (6) = 232.942, Prob > χ2 = 0.0000) indicates the goodness of fit of the model. For more use of agriculture-related information, Ministry of Agriculture and NGOs need to intervene in rural agricultural programs.