منبر معارف الزراعة الأُسرية

Agricultural information needs of rural women farmers in Nkonkobe Municipality

The extension challenge

Access to agricultural information is vital for improving food security at the village level. This study accessed the agricultural information needs of women farmers in Nkonkobe Municipality of the Amathole District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Data was obtained from 118 households. The women farmers were identified from four villages using the snowball sampling technique. Findings revealed that backyard gardening (87.2%; n = 103) was common in addition to the rearing of indigenous chicken (65.2%; n = 77) to complement food security. Most (80.5%; n = 95) were confronted with weed problems after applying cow dung as manure. There was a high report (70.3%; n = 83) of insect attack on leaves of cabbage, spinach and carrot, while seed dormancy was low (24.58; n = 29). Problems of fowls’ theft (66.95%; n = 49) and fowl predators (40.68%; n = 48) were common. More than average (54.2%; n = 64) depends on friends, neighbours and farmers’ colleagues for agricultural information but the majority (99.1%; n = 117) preferred extension workers coupled with farm demonstration for agricultural information. The study identified the importance of farmer-to-farmer model of technology transfer among farmers. It is recommended that farmer-to-farmer model could further be investigated to complement efforts of the extension services towards providing agricultural information to the smallholder farmers.

Title of publication: Journal of Agricultural Science
المجلد: 5
الإصدار: 5
ISSN: 1916-9760
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المؤلف: Shehu Folaranmi Gbolahan Yusuf
مؤلفين آخرين: Patrick Masika, David Ikponmwosa Ighodaro
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السنة: 2013
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البلد/البلدان: South Africa
التغطية الجغرافية: أفريقيا
النوع: مقال صحفي
لغة المحتوى: English
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