ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN EMERGING PLATFORM FOR ACCESS TO EXTENSION SERVICES AMONG SMALL SCALE FARMERS IN SOUTHERN TARABA-NIGERIA

This study analysed social media as an emerging platform for access to extension services among small scale farmers in southern Taraba, Nigeria. The major objective was to analyse social media as an emerging platform for access to extension services among small scale farmers in southern Taraba, while specific objectives were to describe the socioeconomic characteristics, identify benefits, determine ease of usage and identify constraints of using social media among the respondents. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to collect primary data from 216 farmers through a well-structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using inferential and non-inferential statistics. The Multiple Regression result revealed access to social media (0.910), social media experience (0.021), and educational experience (0.054) to be significant at 1% and income (0.413) to be significant at 5%. Also, 72.7% were males, 93.1% had 1-10 household size, 81.5% had 1-20 years farming experience and 46.8% frequently used Facebook. On benefit of using social media, disseminating information to friends, accessing information on farm inputs and accessingknowledge about agriculture activities top the list. Furthermore, 63.4% accessed agricultural extension services using Facebook easily and 56.5% accessed extension services using WhatsApp easily. Also high cost of handsets and lack of trust on information from social media were serious constraints of using social media. The study conclude that social media has emerged as a widely acceptable tool for extension services access and recommend that all stakeholders in the agricultural industry should package capacity building programmes to educate farmers on the use of social media.