Information Seeking Behavior Of Farmers Research Articles

Perilaku Pencarian Informasi Petani dalam Budidaya Gambir di Jorong Tanjuang Bungo Nagari Koto Lamo Kecamatan Kapur IX Kabupaten Lima Puluh Kota

This study aims to describe the information seeking behavior of farmers in gambier cultivation in Jorong Tanjuang Bungo. The method used is a qualitative method using interviews to collect data. The interviews involved ten farmers in Jorong Tanjung Bungo. Data were collected through four stages, namely passive attention, passive search, active search, and continuous search. Results show that in the passive attention stage, farmers rely on TV and Radio if the signal is stable and social interaction. The passive search stage is characterized by receiving unexpected information through communication. In the active search stage, farmers use external resources such as actively engaging in various communities. The continuous search stage shows farmers' efforts to expand their knowledge and improve farming practices. Therefore, there are obstacles faced by farmers in gambier cultivation in the process of searching for information which includes the lack of media used to search for information so that the information searched shows little information because of one source only.

A Review Paper on Information Seeking Behaviour of Farmers regarding Crop Production

A Review Paper on Information Seeking Behaviour of Farmers regarding Crop Production

A Study on Agriculture Information Seeking Behavior of Farmer’s through Mobile of West Champaran District, Bihar, India

This study explores the information-seeking behavior of farmers in West champaran District, Bihar, specifically through mobile devices. The research was conducted with 120 randomly selected respondents from 18 blocks in the district. The study found that the majority of farmers were young, with middle school education, belonging to the OBC category. Most lived in single-family systems, had families with 7 to 15 members, and small land holdings. Agriculture farming was their main occupation, with an annual income of Rs. 1-2 lakh. Medium levels of knowledge, seeking behavior, and interview schedule assessment were observed regarding information and communication technology tools. Constraints faced by farmers included lack of knowledge about agricultural advisory services on mobile phones, smart phone proficiency, details about advisory sources, linguistic barriers, lack of literacy, and call drop problems. Significant associations were found between certain variables (age, caste, land holding, annual family income, family type, family size, social participation, mass media exposure, and extension contact) and the information-seeking behavior of farmers. This study provides insights into the information-seeking behavior of farmers through mobile devices in West Champaran District, Bihar. It emphasizes the need to address constraints and improve access to agricultural information for farmers in the region.

Study on Information Seeking Behaviour among the Farmers of Different Cropping System of Tamil Nadu

Information seeking behaviour refers to the orientation of individuals in finding the different information sources and using the availed information in various circumstances. It also includes information retrieval, with its main focus is on understanding the need to seek information and process of using it. The present study deals with the information seeking behaviour of farmers of different cropping systems. The study used an ex-post facto research design. Ex-post facto research is an organised empirical study in which the researcher has no direct influence over the independent variables. A sample size of 300 was selected for the study. Information seeking behaviour was calculated by using a scale consisting of three subheads i.e., personal localite sources, personal cosmopolite sources and impersonal cosmopolite sources. It could be concluded from the findings that slightly above two-third of the farmers (67.00 per cent) had medium level of information seeking behaviour, less than one-fifth of the farmers (17.33 per cent) and only little amount of the farmers (15.67 per cent) had high level of information seeking behaviour. The study helps the various development departments related to agriculture and rural development to make relevant policies in suitable communication models.

Climate change adaptation strategies of cocoa farmers in the Wassa East District: Implications for climate services in Ghana

Studies have generally shown that climate change has tremendous impacts on cocoa productivity. Although there is an increasing proliferation of studies on adaptation strategies of cocoa farmers, many of the studies are not linked to climate services that provide information to help ensure climate smart decision-making among cocoa farmers. This study investigates the perception and adaptation strategies of cocoa farmers to draw insights into climate services necessary for adaptation. Through a semi-structured questionnaire survey of 150 cocoa farming households and Focus Group Discussions, the study found that key adaptation strategies include changing planting dates, diversification to non-farm activities, planting improved cocoa varieties, crop diversification, and tree planting. Age and information seeking behaviour of farmers have positive influence on access to climate services which serves as a basis for these adaptation strategies. The existing climate services are not comprehensive enough to cover the wide array of adaptation needs of farmers. Current services focus on only dissemination of rainfall and temperature information through radio and television without providing information on other adaptation needs such as planning and harvesting dates. The findings suggest that there is a need for scaling up access to climate services in areas of planting services and crop improvement through zero literacy devices if cocoa farmers’ adaptation to climate impacts are to be addressed.

Information-seeking behaviour: A case study on farmers in Maputo City, Mozambique

In the agricultural sector, which is a pillar for the development of the world economy, and for family subsistence, having information is critical. The objective of this study is to analyse the information-seeking behaviour of farmers in Maputo City, Mozambique. A case study was conducted involving ten farmers from the KaMbukwana and KaMovata Municipal Districts. For the practice of agriculture, farmers in Maputo City largely depend on information from their fellow farmers and on government institutions as a reliable source. Other sources of information include television, workshops and non-governmental organisations. There is a high perception of relevancy of information for practice of agriculture; the farmers appeal for the use of information and communications technology as a mechanism to share information.

Challenges of smallholder farmers in accessing agricultural information in Southern Ethiopia

Abstract: The study was focused on identifying sources of agricultural information and analyzing challenges faced by smallholder farmers in accessing agricultural information in Southern Ethiopia. To achieve the stated objectives the study district was selected purposively from Wolaita zone by selecting five kebeles randomly. At the end, a total of 150 sample households were randomly selected from these five kebeles. To collect the data both primary and secondary sources were used for the purpose of this study. Primary data were collected directly from sample respondents through structured and semi-structured interview schedules, observation and focus group discussions. Secondary data were collected from Woreda agriculture and rural development office report, and other relevant books, journal articles and the Internet. After the relevant data were collected, the descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency, and percentage, and the inferential statistics such as chi-square tests were also used. The findings indicate that female farmers, illiteracy, location of market center, information seeking behavior of farmers, low rate of extension-farmers linkages, inadequate operational skill of aids, language barriers, lack of training, lack of rural electrification, lack of development agents, absence of rural networks, inadequate reading materials, and inappropriate time of broadcasting are the main challenges smallholder farmers were faced with. Therefore, to overcome the challenges strong commitment and reformation should be done in the study area by the concerned stakeholders.

Information seeking behaviour of farmers in Aligarh District of Uttar Pradesh

Information seeking behaviour of farmers in Aligarh District of Uttar Pradesh

Factors that Influence Farmers’ Information Seeking Behaviour: A Study of Sri Lankan Vegetable Farmers

Information and communication technology (ICT) plays a vital role in disseminating agricultural information. In this backdrop, to make use of ICT for a prolific agriculture information dissemination, it is vitally important to gain a comprehensive understanding of the farmers’ information seeking behaviour. Despite the vitality, very few informational studies have been carried in Sri Lankan agriculture, particularly with respect to vegetable farmers in the country. To bridge this existing knowledge gap, this study sets out to investigate the information seeking behaviour (ISB) of vegetable farmers in Sri Lanka. Wilson’s general model of information seeking behaviour 1996 was selected to guide the present study. Primary data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 289 vegetable farmers and were analysed by performing a regression analysis. The regression analysis revealed that vegetable farmers’ ISB is greatly influenced by their information need and the channel characteristics. The regression results further revealed that the demographic characteristics such as age, education, farming experience and training, operational factors such as land extent, land ownership and types of farming system, and personal and role-related factors such as perception of agri-information and information sharing behaviour also influence vegetable farmers’ ISB significantly. The study findings will inform the policymakers, information systems and applications designers, and researchers about the factors that affecting on ISB of farmers. Furthermore, this study will help stimulate similar studies in developing countries.

Information Seeking behaviour of Farmers and Factors Influencing Information Seeking behaviours of Farmers of Nalbari District of Assam with Reference to Climate Change Adaptation

Information Seeking behaviour of Farmers and Factors Influencing Information Seeking behaviours of Farmers of Nalbari District of Assam with Reference to Climate Change Adaptation

Exploring Information Seeking Behavior of Farmers’ in Information Related to Climate Change Adaptation Through ICT (CHAI)

In Tanzania, agriculture sector is known for employing more than 70% of the total population. Agriculture sector faces many challenges including climate change. Climate change causes low productivity in agriculture; low productivity is caused due to poor implementation of agricultural policies and strategies. This poor implementation of policies has also caused many farmers to be not competent in climate change adaptation. Over the years, provisions of agricultural advice and extension were provided by various approaches, including training and visit extension, participatory approaches, and farmers’ field schools. However, provision of agricultural advisory and extension service is inefficient. Also, in most cases the usage of most agricultural innovations and technologies developed is limited. A literature review indicates that the main reasons given by Tanzanian farmers for not using improved technology are not lack of knowledge or skill, but rather that the technologies do not contribute towards improvements (e.g., the technologies are not profitable or they imply to high risk). Thus, agricultural extension service needs to be geared towards teaching farmers how to develop innovative and cost effective technologies that are contextualized. Limited numbers of agricultural extension staff and less interactivity of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as radio and television, have been mentioned to be among the factors limiting the provision of agricultural advisory and extension services to the majority of farmers in Tanzania. The advancements in ICTs have brought new opportunities for enhancing access to agricultural advisory and extension service for climate change adaptation. In Tanzania, farmers and other actors access agricultural information from various sources such as agricultural extension workers and use of various databases from Internet Services Providers. Also there are different web – and mobile – based farmers’ advisory information systems to support conventional agricultural extension service. These systems are producing bulk amounts of data which makes it difficult for different stakeholders to make an informed decision after data analysis. This calls for the need to develop a tool for data visualization in order to understand hidden patterns from massive data. In this study, a semi-automated text classification was developed to determine the frequently asked keywords from a web and mobile based farmers’ advisory system called UshauriKilimo after being in use for more than 2 years by more than 700 farmers.

Developing a model to explore the information seeking behaviour of farmers

PurposeGenerating an in-depth understanding of information needs and seeking behaviour is important both for restructuring existing agricultural information systems (ISs) and for creating new ISs. Many information seeking models have been developed over the years, most are narrowly focused on a specific role or discipline. However, no such specific model has been developed in reference to agriculture or an allied discipline. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to develop a model to explore the information seeking behaviour (ISB) of farmers.Design/methodology/approachThe model proposed in this paper is based on Wilson’s model. The theoretical insights and empirical evidences comprehended at the study were embedded into Wilson’s model to develop a model that explores the ISB of farmers. The proposed model was quantitatively evaluated using empirical data gathered through a survey of 289 farmers. Furthermore, the model was qualitatively evaluated by subject experts against criteria of simplicity, comprehensiveness, exactness, generality and clarity.FindingsThe key finding of this study is the model developed to explore the ISB of farmers. The adapted model provides theoretical and empirical bases for exploring farmers’ ISBs. Thus, the model will be useful in developing valuable design insights to apply to user-centred agricultural ISs.Originality/valueThe originality of this study relates to its demonstration of how existing models can be reconsidered and adapted based on related literature and then tested and presented as adapted models. The proposed model will be useful to promote informational studies in agriculture.

Information Seeking Behaviour of Farmers in Niphad Taluka of Nashik District, Maharashtra

Information Seeking Behaviour of Farmers in Niphad Taluka of Nashik District, Maharashtra

English

The purpose of this research is to reveal the determinants of information seeking behavior of the Abergelle woreda smallholder farmers. In this information era, smallholder farmers’ information seeking behavior shows difference due to many reasons: change with their geographical location, economic, demographic, psychological and institutional factors. Till now, to the best of the author’s knowledge, no study has been done on the topic in the study area, therefore, identifying the research on determinants of information seeking behaviour underline its importance. From the 19 rural kebeles of the wereda, 5 were randomly selected. The sample size was specified based on simplified Yamane (1967) formula and 152 household head were selected by using simple random sampling technique proportion to their population size from the randomly selected five sampled kebeles. The primary data were collected through household survey and secondary data were collected by reviewing published and unpublished materials. The level of respondents information seeking behavior of farmers were analyzed by using mean and standard deviation and the determinants of information seeking behavior identified by ordered logit regression model. Information seeking behavior of farmers’ was determined positively and significant by radio, mobile, extension contact, participating in any training, social participation, distance from the nearest market and farmers’ perception. In conclusion, farmers’ information seeking behavior was determined by: ICT ownership, extension contact, participating in training, social participation and perception. The study recommended that, to create awareness on the importance of information in enhancing rural livelihood, dissemination of information through trusted channels information sources is highly needed,  strengthening the existing agricultural training offering practices and extending the training on how to seek information on modern information source further needed and strengthening extension contact through individual extension contact using home and farm visit should supported by modern ICTs.   Key words: Determinants, information seeking behavior, ordered ordinal logistic regression logit, smallholder farmers, Tigray, Ethiopia.

Information Needs and Information Seeking Behavior of Farmers in a Local Community in Odisha:An Analytical Study

Every effort has been taken by Government authorities to empower the farming community with information. Farmers have taken interest to know the modern techniques of farming to improve agricultural productivity. Farmers must have latest information and technological know-how on modern agriculture. In this situation determining information needs and identifying their information seeking behavior is an imminent task for the information intermediary. Hence this study undertaken in four villages in Odisha is an attempt in this direction which is designed to reflect the current knowledge of the farmers on agriculture, their information needs, seeking behavior, communication channels, the priority of information, and ways and means of better information related situation, etc.