Roles of Cyber Extension in Fish Farming Information Dissemination in Egbedore Local Government Area of Osun State

Abstract

The dissemination of information on improved fish farming techniques through the use of cyber extension is ineffective due to the inability of the farmer to comprehend information passed across to them which is reflected on the continuous reduction in fish farming, hence the reason why it seems like there is no positive effect of the information disseminated to fish farmers on their productivity. The study was carried out to examine the role of cyber extension in fish farming information dissemination in Egbedore local government area of Osun state. Multistage sampling was used in selecting eighty (80) respondents for this study. Data was collected with the aid of questionnaire randomly drawn from the local government area. Descriptive analysis performed shows that 18.7% of the respondents were between 50-59 years of age with the mean age of 36 years and 55% of the respondents were male. Most (80%) of the respondents were married. Also, 48.7% were Christian while 50% of the respondents spent 13years above in school. Similarly, 68.8% of the respondents have household size of 5 members, fish farming experience less than 5 years (37.5%). Members of social organization (56.3%), annual income between #300,000 to #499,000 (51.3%) contact with extension agents (46.2%) Similarly, 21.3% obtain their capital from cooperative society while 81.3% of the respondents preferred both family and hired labor as source of labor. Further descriptive analysis shows all sampled respondents (100%) have access to smart phones that 72.5% of the respondent’s always use smart phones, 27.5% of the respondents occasionally uses Smartphone in sourcing for fish farming information. Less than fifty percent (43.7%) have access to computer while 16.2% of the respondents uses computer always in sourcing for fish farming information and more than half of the respondents (68.8%) have access to laptop while 12.5% of the respondents use laptop always in sourcing for fish farming information and thirty¬-five percent of the respondents have access to tablet/ipad while 10% of the respondents use tablet/ipad always in sourcing for fish farming information. The types of fish farming information sourced via cyber extension includes pond construction, fish feed formulation, pest and disease control, poaching , quality fingerlings, marketing of fish and fish landing. A larger proportion of the respondents (85%) encountered some constraints in sourcing for fish farming information through the use of cyber extension, that 82.5% of the respondent indicated of erratic power supply as the constraint encountered in the study area while 81.3% of the respondents indicated poor network and 73.8% of the respondents indicated high cost of data. Similarly, 65% of the respondents’ encountered problem of poor service from the service providers while 75% of the respondents indicated technical know-how as the constraint encountered and 60% of the respondents encountered problem of financial capacity. Also, 50% of the constraints encountered by the respondents were very severe and 60% of the respondents indicated high severity of using cyber extension for fish farming information dissemination. The correlation analysis carried out shows that Age (r = 0.566), Household size (r = 0.598), Number of years spent schooling (r = 0.532), Pond size (r = 0.168), Annual income (r = 0.525) were significantly related to role of cyber extension in disseminating fish farming information. Also, Fish farming experience (r = -0.132) was significantly but negatively related to role of cyber extension in disseminating fish farming information. It was recommended that it is recommended that the respondents should consider the need to embrace or prioritize the services of private extension services.