Farmers’ Use of Extension Guide as a Medium of Agricultural Information in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed the use of extension guide as a medium of agricultural information among farmers in Ogun State. A multistage sampling technique was used to select three hundred and twenty farmers from thirty two villages in the four agricultural zones of Ogun State.  Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analyzing the data collected. Sixty nine point seven percent (69.7%) of the    farmers are within the age bracket 41-60 years. 74.3% of them are not educated while 25.7% could read and write in Yoruba dialect.  Eighty percent of the farmers are men, 56.3% are Christians, 41.3% Muslims while 2.5% practiced traditional religion.  It was found that more farmers (59.0%) are not aware of the extension guides, and that 20.0% of farmers that are aware rated the extension guides as of high quality.  Result further shows that out of the 25.7 percent literate farmers only 6.9 percent used extension guide as a medium of agricultural information. The use of extension guide was related to farmer’s age (r = -0.16; P < 0.05), and education (X² cal 6.23; P < 0.05).  The constraints to farmers use of extension guide were ranked according to their severity as follows: illiteracy, irregular supply by extension agents, lack of fund and bad eye sight.  It was however recommended that literate farmers should be encouraged to read and utilize the content of extension guides and that the guides should be distributed to such farmers without change. Illiterate farmers should be encouraged to attend out-of-school adult education programmes and use other means of agricultural information like radio and television. It was also recommended that the content of the extension guides should address the felt needs of the farmers.