Agricultural information needs and their accessibility to sesame producers in Morogoro district, Tanzania

Makawia, P. J.

dc.creator	Makawia, P. J.
dc.date	2019-11-05T05:28:35Z
dc.date	2019-11-05T05:28:35Z
dc.date	2018
dc.date.accessioned	2022-10-25T08:51:09Z
dc.date.available	2022-10-25T08:51:09Z
dc.identifier	https://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/123456789/2968
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/91086
dc.description	Masters dissertation
dc.description	A study was carried out to assess the agricultural information needs and their accessibility for improving production among smallholder farmers growing sesame in Morogoro district, Morogoro region. Data were collected from 120 respondents using interview schedule. Checklist was used to collect data from Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and from interview with key informants. Quantitative data were analysed using the International Business Machines Corporation Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) software version 16.0 and qualitative data were summarized and analysed using content analysis. The findings show that the main sources of agricultural information to smallholder farmers growing sesame were personal experience, friends, neighbours and brokers. Extension agents and mass media were less used by smallholder farmers growing sesame as source of information. Also it was found that from all the information needs, information on pest and disease management, market information and improved seed varieties were highly demanded information needs. In addition low level of income, inadequate contact to extension agents, ignorance to information source (lack of awareness of information sources) and distance to information sources were the major challenges facing smallholder farmers growing sesame in accessing agricultural information for sesame. It is recommended that all smallholder farmers growing sesame should be encouraged to access agricultural information on improved technologies from formal sources such as extension agents and mobile phones therefore, the Department of Agricultural Extension should focus on information need of the farmer when motivate them to use more formal sources for getting agricultural information’s for better farming outcome. Also it is recommended that emphasis should be given to establish more formal information sources based on the information needs of farmers.
dc.format	application/pdf
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Sokoine University of Agriculture
dc.subject	Agricultural information needs
dc.subject	Information needs
dc.subject	Agricultural information
dc.subject	Morogoro district
dc.subject	Tanzania
dc.subject	Sesame production
dc.subject	Agricultural information accessibility
dc.title	Agricultural information needs and their accessibility to sesame producers in Morogoro district, Tanzania
dc.type	Thesis