Mutuality of extension-farmer communication methods in dissemination of postharvest technology information in Kwara State

Abstract

The medium of communication employed by agricultural extension officers in the dissemination of postharvest technology and information influences the adoption rate in a social system. The exploratory study assessed the forms of communication used in disseminating postharvest information; factors considered in selecting forms of communications used and the feedback effectiveness of communication forms used by extension officers. A multistage purposive sampling technique was used to select 75 field extension workers of Kwara Agricultural Development Project (KWADP) on which a structured interview schedule was administered. Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages were used to analyze the collected data. Findings show that agricultural extension workers utilized Audio, visual, written methods as well as social media platforms. Audio methods such as general meetings (85.3%), farm visits (86.7%) and telephone calls (70.7%) are the most widely used methods while written forms such as advisory booklets (33.3%), articles (28.0%) and personal letters (21.3%) are the least employed methods. The number of Farmers to be reached (69.3%); nature of message to be disseminated (74.7%) and characteristics of end-users 72.0% were the major factors considered by extension workers in selecting forms of communications to be used in dissemination efforts. Also, Audio methods such as farm visits (38.7%) radio (37.3%), home visits (28.0%) and general meeting (26.7%) were considered to be the most effective communication methods. It is recommended that the effective communication methods used by the extension agents should be strengthened to further enhance innovation dissemination and adoption by the farmers.