ABSTRACT

A variety of information sources are used in disseminating information to farmers. The usefulness of information sources print, electronic and hdman is very important to make in formed, decisions about the effectiveness of each information source. A number of studies * . have been published relative to the usefulness of information sources as perceived by farmers and extension.agents. A rice program was introduced by Abia ADP. The program has some information support sei-vice and training. In information support service component, promotion of print, broadcast, electronic media and human and information campaign were identified as key strategies. This study examined the usefulness of information sources'in the' promotion of rice production in the State as perceived by farmers. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used in the selection of the sample size. In the first stage, one (I) Local Government Area, Bende was randomly selected, in the second stage, one (I) community was selected in the third stage four villages were selected, 45 rice farmers who has had contact with the agricultural rice program were selected bringing the total to 180 respondents. Data were'collected through the use ofsemi-structured interview schedule and later analysed with the use ofsimple descriptive and inferential statistics. Major results indicated that farmers'view electronic media such as radio and television, interpersonal contacts more useful in receiving agricultural messages. The study further indicated language use In information dissemination as a serious problem while poor feedback mechanism, complexity ofinformation and irrelevant contents ofthe technology as being a very serious problem in receiving information from various sources. Based on the results of thi findings, the study recommends audience analysis as a key strategy before f deciding qn using/any channel for disseminating best practices to rice producers in the State.