Adoption of improved agricultural technologies disseminated via radio farmer programme by farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

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 puree 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.