Agricultural information and indigenous knowledge in peasant economy (original) (raw)
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1 Agricultural Information and Indigenous Knowledge in Peasant Economy
1993
Agricultural information and indigenous knowledge were examined among peasants of the central Ethiopian highlands. Measures of central tendency, logical explanation, descriptive analysis, problem solving tests, scoring and logit analysis were performed. The findings indicate that information from extension agents tends to favour peasant associations or farmers that are closer to cities, service cooperatives, politicians and extension agents. Despite variations in the sources and access to information, the extent to which information is subjected to conscious processing determines its value to decision-makers. Furthermore, the value of information is greatly influenced by indigenous knowledge or social experience and schooling. Farmers who are beneficiaries of projects and friends with politicians received higher scores on production problems compared to the control group. Production knowledge is found to be locale-specific and varies by age. Production knowledge is greatly influence...
AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND POVERTY REDUCTION
2001
Kenya, including high-potential and pastoral areas, to document and assess the significance of different actors and organisations as potential uptake/dissemination pathways for agricultural technologies, and to consider ways to improve the performance of the knowledge and information systems in the districts. Databases of the organisations, institutions and actors involved in agriculture in the four districts were compiled, and a series of participatory and rapid appraisal exercises were carried out with people concerned with agriculture in selected sub-locations and divisions within each district.
Information Needs and Seeking Behavior of Farmers in Southern Ethiopia
2020
Information is an important factor in agricultural development. The study investigated farmers’ agricultural information needs and seeking behavior in the Southern Regional State of Ethiopia. A cross-sectional research design was employed and the study population included all household heads of the eight sampled villages in four administrative zones. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to obtain a sample of 320 farmers. Quantitative data were collected and research adopted descriptive statistics. The results revealed information on crop production technologies; information about diseases, pests and weather forecasts, and market information were identified as the top three most important types of agricultural information. Similarly, crop production technologies; animal husbandry technologies, and information about agricultural inputs were the information farmers seek frequently. Farmers use development agents as the first source of agricultural information. All of the respo...
Although Ethiopia is in transition from an agriculture led development to an industry led development, the shift of focus in the role of development from agriculture to industrialization has not altered the objective of enhancing agricultural productivity with the new system of agricultural extension, PADETES. It gives equal emphasis to human resource development along with its effort to promote appropriate technologies. Hence, this paper is aimed at identifying the performance effectiveness of development agents in agricultural technology dissemination from the views and opinions of the farming households of the study area. To satisfy the predetermined objectives, the research focused on randomly selected twelve Woredas of the region in which interview schedule is used to collected data from 108 farming household heads. Farmers require different information on agricultural technologies more than the technology itself. For various information sources, there are different stakeholders considering the mission of changing the livelihood of farm families. As stakeholders in the field of agriculture DAs face different challenges and constraints. In-service and pre-service training which would build the knowledge, skill and commitment level of the expertise and improve the working environment of DAs including availability of incentives in kind and promotion is recommended to solve the difficulties and constraints of development agents that would have a profound important to the profitability of farming households.
The purpose of this paper is to identify farm households' preferences towards agricultural information sources and their usage in the Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia. A proportionate sample of 364 farm households was selected using a systematic random sampling technique. A pre-tested semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect primary data during June and July of 2020. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis (t-test and chi-square test) were used to analyse the data and test the level of association between the dependent and independent variables. Three focus group discussions were held with progressive farmers and the data were thematically analysed. The results revealed that co-farmers, extension agents, and family members were the most preferred sources by respondents. This shows interpersonal and peer-to-peer methods are dominantly used by farmers in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia. To boost agricultural productivity and target communication campaigns, the government should devise a proper way of disseminating information to the farmers. Information should be available through the sources that have been used by the farmers considering how the messages are best suited to their context. Moreover, some potential sources such as research and academic institutions and mobile phones should be accessible to transform the current practices of farming.
The study examined the level of access to agricultural technology information among rural farmers in Ido Local Government, Ibadan, Nigeria. Primary data were collected with the aid of pre-tested questionnaires and 100 respondents were selected through a two stage sampling procedure. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square was used to test the hypothesis.The result of the analyses indicated that (29.1%) falls within the active age bracket of 40-60years, more than half (61.6%) had no formal education, 70.9% were male and 68.6% were indigene of the study area. Majority(58.1%) of the respondents had a little information about weather and climate, 48.8% had no information about tillage while (50%) had a lot of information about weed control and fertilizer. Most of the farmers had little information about government related information (4.7%), market related (7%) and harvesting techniques(8.1%). 50% of the respondents in the study area strongly agreed that source of information is constraint in agricultural production while 3.5% strongly disagreed about the source of information being a constraint. The hypothesis test revealed that there is significant relationship between marital status (< 0.05), education level (< 0.05) and the level of access to agricultural information in the study area. Based on the result, the study recommends that information should be disseminated to the farmers in the language that they understand and also, adult education should be encouraged in the study area to keep farmers informed towards on agricultural production practices.
International journal of agricultural extension and rural development studies, 2022
Wheat is one of the most important staple crops of the country in terms of production and consumption. The study was conducted to investigate farmers' access to information on improved wheat technology package of Digalu Tijo of Arsi Zone, Ethiopia. The study went further to examine the level of information dissemination for farmers and the benefits information users gain. Focus group discussion guide, interview checklist and observation checklist were employed to gather information required. The collected data analyzed using descriptive analysis. A large number 91.7% of the respondents were those who can read and write. The finding of the study indicated that men have more access to extension education programs than women. Similarly, the primary sources of information for respondents were development agents (70%). The study finding revealed that respondents benefited more from the adoption of improved wheat technology. Further and regular study need to undertaken so that farmers' information and technology needs can be identified in order to provide improved and up dated information and technology for overall improvement of livelihood of farming community the study areas.
PROVIDING INFORMATION THAT COULD ENHANCE THE INCOME OF PEASANT FARMERS, NOMADS AND HUNTERS
A larger proportion of farmers live in the rural area and they lack necessary information and awareness for better tools and implementation strategies that can improve their means of farm method, marketing and food storage for all year round food sufficiency. The ever increasing information explosion on agricultural produce: Seedling, harvesting, marketing and storage among others. Information is a means of transferring events for better awareness to add new meaning that could change events, lives, or experiences; this could have considerable implications on farmers, farm produce, implementation of farm tools and the extension services. This present work is therefore an attempt to survey how farmers information literacy affect agricultural produce, food security, marketing, storage and the lives of the farmers in other to alleviate poverty in the study area and Nigeria in general.
2014
Agriculture remains the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, because it does not only contribute to the largest share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it is the largest employer of labour and a key contributor to wealth creation and poverty alleviation, as large percentage of the population derive their income from agriculture and related activities . Agricultural sector is the backbone of many economies in Africa, but most African countries are yet to devote their efforts to the dissemination of information and modern knowledge on agriculture to rural areas, where 70 to 80 percent of the African population lives. For any nation to improve on its agricultural productivity and ensure food security, access to information and awareness programs on agricultural practices is key in ensuring food security. Information on good knowledge of modern agricultural technology and its usage will enable improved cultivation, harvesting and storage that will reduce famine and improve the nation’s all ...
SA Journal of Information Management, 2016
Background: Access to agricultural knowledge is important in transforming livelihoods of those relying on agriculture for a living and in enhancing food security. This access to agricultural knowledge is influenced by infrastructure needed for information dissemination. However, information infrastructure is not uniformly distributed within and between countries. It is because of this that some of the farming communities are information rich while others are information poor. In Tanzania, the agricultural sector is characterised by poor research-extension-farmers linkage and inaccessibility of agricultural knowledge at farm levelObjective: The study investigated the factors influencing access to agricultural knowledge among smallholder rice farmers in the Kilombero district of Tanzania. Specifically, the study identified categories of agricultural knowledge needed by farmers, determined how farmers access agricultural knowledge, and assessed the factors limiting the accessibility of...