ISSN 2360-798X
Abstract
The study assessed communication training needs of rice farmer in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria. One hundred and thirty-four farmers were selected using multistage sampling technique and a well-structured questionnaire was administered to collect data from the respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to achieve the objectives of the study. The study revealed that majority of the respondents were male, accounting for (62.7%) of the surveyed population, with mean age of 46 years. Majority of the respondents (61.9%) were married and majority (74.6%) of the respondents surveyed attain formal education. Majority of the respondents (67.6%) has more than 20 years of farming experience, with most (59.6%) of the respondents having average farm size ranging from 1-3 hectares, and majority (72.1%) of the respondents indicating that they have average household size of 1-5 persons with mean household size of 6 persons. Most (52.2%) of the respondents have an estimated annual income of above N1,000,000 with mean annual income of N550,000. The result further shows that majority (61.1%) of the respondents do not belong to any rice farmers’ cooperative society. Use of ICT tools, and interaction with extension agents are major existing communication skills in accessing agricultural information that long exist and are available to them in the study area. While use of ICT tools, and use of audio-visuals were identified by the respondents as their major communication training needs. The result also show that majority of the respondents indicated that the training they require will highly increase their yield, improve access to credit facilities, and increase their access to processing and storage facilities. And limited use of ICT tools by extension agents, high cost of trainings, lack of finance to attend training workshops, lack of access to digital and ICT tools, cultural and social barriers, and accessibility and availability of extension services were identified by the respondents as their major constraints to accessing the needed training. Given the high training needs in ICT use and constraints of limited access to digital tools, it was recommended that stakeholders should support farmers with affordable mobile devices, radios, and digital advisory tools. The results show high training needs in ICT and audio-visuals. Extension agencies should integrate digital capacity building into routine training programs. Improve farmers’ access to extension agents and agricultural information services
Keywords: Rice farmers; Communication training needs; ICT adoption; Agricultural extension services; Smallholder agriculture