IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL JOURNALISM ON CROP PRODUCTION IN AHOADA WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study assessed the role of agricultural journalism in enhancing crop production in Ahoada West Local Government Area, Rivers State. The objectives were to: determine the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents; identify the mass media through which respondent access agricultural information; assess the agricultural information that is disseminated through the mass media; examine the role of agricultural journalism in crop production; and ascertain the challenges facing agricultural journalism in the study area. Data were collected through the use of a questionnaire. A total of 129 respondents were used. Data were analyzed with the use of frequency, percentage, mean scores and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings showed that majority (60.5%) were female, were married (53.5%), had household size of 5 to 8 persons (51.9%),  had formal education (86.8%), have been in farming between 6 - 10 years (29.5%) and had an income level between N31,000 – N40,000 (35.7%). Major source of information among crop producers was television (14.0%) and kinds of information disseminated for crop production were information on improved planting techniques (19.4%) followed by information on agricultural loan (12.4%). The roles of agricultural journalism were to create awareness on modern farming methods (=3.64), promoting market it for farm products (=3.55), etc. The major constraints to agricultural journalism were language barriers (=3.60), limited coverage of farmers’ needs and inadequate credit (=3.50), lack of Information Technology and Communication (ICT) infrastructure and poor radio and television signals (=3.48) etc. The study recommends that agricultural programme should be presented in both English and Local Languages, power stability should be improved and there is need to establish a community Rural Television.