Use of social media in sourcing agricultural information among farmers in Oyo Central senatorial district, Oyo state, Nigeria

Abstract

Social media plays an important role in transmitting information to large number of audiences simultaneously. As agricultural system becomes more complex, farmers’ access to reliable, timely and relevant information sources becomes more critical to their competitiveness. This study therefore examined the role of social media in dissemination of agricultural information among farmers in Oyo state. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 120 respondents out of which only 111 questionnaires were retrieved. Primary data were collected on preferred tools, information sought, benefits and constraints. The analytical tools employed were descriptive statistics such as mean, charts, and frequency counts. The findings of the study revealed that the mean age of respondents and farm size of the respondents were 28years and 17.6 hectares. WhatsApp (68.5%) and Facebook (58.6%) were the most preferred tools for dissemination of agricultural information. Provision of solution to agricultural problems (278.4) and increased production quantity and quality (254.6) were identified by the respondents as the major contributions of social media tools in the dissemination of agricultural information while Inadequate / erratic power supply (245.6), slow internet connectivity (235.2) and high cost of data (234.3) were the most realized constraints. Alternate source of power supply and internet connectivity of all networks should be improved upon to enable them have access to continuous flow of agricultural information. Also, help line centre can assist farmers with prompt response to problems to reduce the high cost of purchasing data.