IAALD Quarterly Bulletin 1999, XLIV (3/4): 173-176
The study was undertaken
to investigate the information needs of
small-scale dairy farmers and various information
sources they consulted to resolve
their information needs. It involved
71 small-scale dairy farmers from five villages,
which were selected through a
systematic random sampling from Mbozi
district. Personal interviews were used to
gather data from small-scale dairy farmers.
Small scale dairy farmers were
found to be in need of information on
livestock feeds availability and feeding
techniques (97.2%), parasite and disease
control (83.1%), general animal
husbandry (81.7%), heat detection and
breeding techniques (43.7%) and information
on milk marketing (39.4%). In resolving
their information needs it was
found that attending extension meetings
and extension worker visits were the
most dependable information sources
used by the majority of farmers. The use
of agricultural libraries as an information
source was very uncommon to the majority
of the respondents with the major
reason being lack of such a service.