Assessment of Farmers’ Knowledge Acquisition from Agricultural Technologies Broadcasted on Nasarawa Broadcasting Radio in Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was to assess farmers’ knowledge acquisition from agricultural technologies broadcasted on Nasarawa Broadcasting Radio in Nasarawa State. A multi stage sampling procedure was applied to select 209 farmers. The data were collected through structured questionnaire which were analysed using simple descriptive statistics. The result of the analysis revealed that majority (29.2%) were between the ages of 31- 40 years, male (86.1%), married (50.71%), having tertiary education (58.0%), with mean household size of 11 person, having an annual farm income of between ℕ100,001- ℕ200,000 with mean farming experience of 14.5 years, having a farm size of between 0- 5 hectares. Majority (70. 8%) were members of a cooperative groups and almost all (95,7) had radio set. The study identified two agricultural programmes presented by NBS radio weekly. The result of the study further shows technologies such as timely planting of crops (x̄ =4, 80), best practices in yam production (x̄ =4.75) and reputable sources of farm input (x̄ =4.55) were considered highly relevant to farmers’ needs. The result further revealed that farmers had gained new knowledge on use of improved seeds (81.2%), proper storage methods of farm produce (77.2%) and best practices in rice production (73.3%). The study also showed that the technologies mostly adopted by the respondents includes; use of improved seeds (95.7%), proper storage of farm produce (94.7%) and best practices in rice production (93.3%).  It is recommended that, the programmes should be sustained as it giving out the needed information to farmers.