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257510

Small-scale Farmers’ Information Needs and Obstacles: Evidence from the Volta Region, Ghana

Article

Last updated: 28 Dec 2024

Subjects

-

Tags

Agricultural Economics and Management Sciences

Abstract

Agricultural information is assuming increasing importance in the face of current biotic and abiotic stresses, coupled with changing dynamics of agricultural practice globally. This paper contributes to the discourse by examining information needs and obstacles of small-scale farmers in the Volta Region, Ghana. Structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data from six hundred and thirty (630) small-scale farmers, selected through multistage sampling technique. The study showed that information on marketing, post-harvest techniques, and diseases and pests management were the critical information needs of small-scale farmers in the Region. The study further established that majority of small-scale farmers were aware of information sources in the Region with the major information sources consulted by farmers in order of preference being family members, friends, radio, television and extension agents. A chi-square analysis showed that educational level of farmers was not significant at ρ ≤ 0.05 and therefore did not affect farmers' information needs. Besides, the study showed that the major obstacles facing small-scale farmers were lack of skills to access information, inadequate information resources, insufficient agricultural extension agents, and absence of Agricultural Information Centres. These findings will certainly shape agricultural extension program planning in the Region and inform national extension policy.

DOI

10.21608/fjard.2022.257510

Authors

First Name

Seth

Last Name

Awuku Manteaw

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Institute for Scientific and Technological Information, Ghana

Email

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City

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Orcid

-

Volume

36

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

34137

Issue Date

2022-05-01

Receive Date

2022-09-02

Publish Date

2022-05-01

Page Start

175

Page End

192

Print ISSN

1110-7790

Online ISSN

2805-2528

Link

https://fjard.journals.ekb.eg/article_257510.html

Detail API

https://fjard.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=257510

Order

3

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Fayoum Journal of Agricultural Research and Development

Publication Link

https://fjard.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Small-scale Farmers’ Information Needs and Obstacles: Evidence from the Volta Region, Ghana

Details

Type

Article

Created At

23 Jan 2023