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

Abstract

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.