Perceived Effectiveness and Access to Sources of Agricultural Information among Small Ruminant Farmers in Iwo Local Government Area of Osun State

Abstract

Information and knowledge are very vital in the agricultural development of any community and where they are poorly disseminated as a result of certain constraints the community’s agricultural development becomes highly impeded. This study was conducted to investigate the perceived effectiveness and access to sources of agricultural information among small ruminant farmers in Iwo local government area in Osun state. A multistage sampling technique was used for the study. A total of 70 questionnaires were administered for the study. The data collected were subjected to statistical analysis using the frequency table, sample percentage and Chi-square. The finding revealed that 60% of the respondents were female, while 34.4% of the respondent fell between the age ranges of (46-55 years). Also, 60.0% were married, while 32.9% had tertiary education. Also, the findings revealed that the majority (51.4%) of the respondent kept both sheep and goat while 81.4% of the respondent was into production for sale and consumption. However, 87.1% of the respondent used radio while 82.9% used television to source for information. The result also showed that 51.4% and 51.4% of the respondents agreed that agricultural information helped improve their standard of living and also control pest and disease respectively. From the research, 64.3% of the respondents choose the unavailability of funds as a major constraint. Chi-square was used to test for the relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the respondent and the use of agricultural information and it shows that there was no significant relationship among sex (0.087), age (0. 140), marital status (0.117), religion (0.243), and family size (0.566) when compared to the use of agricultural information (p>0.05). There is the need for an increase in the number of extension workers with the view of enhancing the benefits derivable to the potential beneficiaries among farming communities to increase the effectiveness of agricultural information.