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Adoption of
improved agricultural technologies disseminated via radio
farmer programme by farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria
A. E. Agwu*, J. N. Ekwueme and
A. C. Anyanwu
Department of Agricultural Extension, University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
agwuekwe1@yahoo.com
Accepted 17 March, 2008 |
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The study determined farmers’ adoption of improved
agricultural technologies disseminated via radio farmer
programme in Enugu State, Nigeria. An interview schedule was
used to collect data from a sample of 135 farmers. Results
show that co-farmers and farm broadcast were the major
sources of information to greater proportion of the farmers.
Data on relevance of the technologies disseminated showed
that almost all the technologies were perceived to be
relevant except processing of tomatoes into paste and purée
and snail farming. The radio farmer programme enhanced the
extent of adoption of six technologies namely; modern land
preparation and planting of early season crop, harvesting of
yam and storage in barn, site selection/bush
burning/packing, processing of cocoyam into chips and flour,
improved early maize cultivation, weeding and fertilizer
application in yam + cassava + maize intercrop and pest
control in the food crop farms. Nevertheless, the adoption
of the technologies were generally low. Age, farming
experience and social participation significantly influenced
adoption of improved agricultural technologies disseminated
via radio farm programme. Major constraints identified
include short duration of programme, inappropriate
scheduling of programme, inability to ask relevant questions
and get feed back from the radio presenter and language used
in presenting the programme. The study recommends among
other things the rescheduling of the radio programme to very
late in the evenings when the farmers will be opportune to
listen to the programme.
Key words:
Improved agricultural technologies, radio programme. |
