The use of agricultural information by rice farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria

The use of information is an indispensable factor in practice of farming, information on newly introduced technology is needed for overall development of agriculture. Despite the efforts of the government through agricultural development programmes and agricultural extension agents in each local government of Ekiti State to make the information available to all rice farmers, findings still indicate that rice farmers in most cases find it difficult to use the information. This study therefore, investigated the use of agricultural information by rice farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Survey research design of correlational type was adopted while multi- stage sampling technique was adopted, using a combination of random, proportionate and stratified techniques to select rice farmers in Ekiti State. Stratification sampling was used to select 870 rice farmers surveyed. A total of 870 copies of questionnaire were distributed and 631 copies were returned (72.5% response rate) and used for the study. Data collected were analysed using frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. Results showed that the agricultural information that rice farmers utilize are on weather trends 568(90.0%), soil management 561(88.9%), credit procurement 554(87.8%). These are among the most critical information needs and the extent to which they use agricultural information was high with a grand mean of 2.34. It is recommended that efforts should be made by government agencies, agricultural institutions, and extension service providers to enhance farmers’ access to reliable information sources through radio broadcasts, mobile applications, and local extension services.