ASSESSMENT OF AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION SOURCES UTILISATION AMONG GRADUATE YOUTH EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME (GYEP) BENEFICIARIES IN MAKURDI ZONE, BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined utilisation of agricultural information sources among graduate youth empowerment programme (GYEP) beneficiaries in Makurdi Zone, Benue State, Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was employed in selecting 150 respondents among the last four years beneficiaries of the GYEP. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics. The result reveled that most of the respondents were within their active ages of production with relatively small household size, farm size and years of farming experience as indicated by the mean values of 33 years, 3 persons, 1.5ha and 3 years, respectively. The finding further showed that majority (67.3%) of the respondents were male, and 57.3% of the respondents had educational qualification of HND / B.Sc. Also, the results revealed that the major sources of information by the respondents were LBRBDA (90.6%), mobile phones (90.6%) and social media (81.3%) which were ranked 1st and 3rd, respectively. The findings revealed that extension agent (=3.5), contact farmers (=2.8), ADPs (=3.3) and LBRBDA (=4.0) were very effective agricultural information sources used by the respondents. The most severe constraints were inadequate extension agents, poor network connectivity, and high cost of ICT gadgets among others. It can be concluded that sources of agricultural information utilised by GYEP farmers were mainly through LBRBDA, social media and fellow farmers. It is recommended that there is a need to increase the number of extension agents and improve network connectivity. Also, to reduce the cost of ICT gadgets and airtime/data, this may help to facilitate information access and usage.