Information behaviour of rural smallholder farmers in some selected developing countries: A literature review

Abstract

The literature from some selected developing countries has demonstrated that rural smallholder farmers need various information sources in pursuit of their goals of increasing production and improving their living standards. According to the sampled studies, the majority of smallholder farmers access information on crop production. Smallholder farmers are aware of information sources despite challenges faced in accessing and using information. The majority of smallholder farmers access information through personal experiences, family members and friends. Despite access to various information sources, the literature has shown that smallholder farmers face various challenges in accessing and using information sources. The major challenges reported by the literature are lack of mobility, lack of finances, lack of rural information centres, and lack of visits by extension officers. The review has highlighted the lack of literature on the information behaviour of smallholder farmers in Malawi despite the fact that the country is an agricultural economy. The review is adapted from the Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS) thesis authored by Austine Phiri at Mzuzu University.

Sustaining agriculture with information: An assessment of rural citrus farmers’ information behaviour

“…These results were fully consistent with that of Naveed (2012) and Naveed andAnwar (2013, 2015) as these studies also reported such barriers among rural farmers while obtaining needed information. These results were partially in line with those of Dutta (2009), Phiri, Chipeta and Chawinga (2019a, 2019b, and Zhang and Yu (2009), who reported information illiteracy, lack of visits of extension staff, lack of financial resources and lack of information centers as the primary hindrances to information access and use. However, these findings contradicted those of Ghafoor, Muhammad, and Chaudhary (2008) who reported that the citrus farmers face constraints while accessing information such as irrelevant TV/radio programs, no access to printed materials, non-cooperation and availability of extension field staff, illiteracy, citrus growers' lack of interest, lack of access to electronic media and poor technical knowledge of extension field staff.…”

“…Likewise, the studies of Dutta (2009), Ikoja-Odongo and Ocholla (2003) reported that information illiteracy, lack of visits of extension staff, and lack of financial resources as the primary hindrances to information access and use in Africa. Similar results were also reported in a review article by Phiri, Chipeta, and Chawinga (2019a). They reported that the major challenges faced by rural smallholder farmers of different developing countries while acquiring agricultural information included limited mobility, outdated information, ignorance, lack of extension agents, financial constraints, extension officers' limited knowledge and language barriers.…”

“…The adapted model not only provides theoretical and empirical bases for investigating information seeking behaviour of farmers but can also be useful for promotion of information studies in agriculture. Phiri, Chipeta, and Chawinga's (2019a) also reviewed literature on information behaviour of rural farmers in some selected developing countries and discovered that the information needs of rural farmers were centered on crop and animal husbandry, pest management, market, weather, loans, new seeds, storage techniques, disease control, and pesticides availability and applications. Likewise, the Tanzanian farmers needed information on marketing, weather, finance, seeds, storage methods, pesticides, disease control, and value addition (Benard, Dulle, and Ngalapa, 2014;Elly and Silayo, 2013;Lwoga, Stilwell, and Ngulube, 2010).…”

“…Personal experience, family members and extension officers were the major information sources of rural smallholder farmers in Malawi (Phiri, Chipeta, and Chawinga, 2019b). In another study, Phiri, Chipeta, and Chawinga (2019a) conducted a review of literature produced in some selected developing countries and found that the farmers residing in rural communities accessed information on crop production through personal experiences, family members and friends.…”

Marketing Information Needs and Seeking Behaviour of Smallholder Livestock Farmers in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

“…Idiake-Ochei, Onemolease and Erie (2016) espoused that the design of appropriate information services depends on understanding the information needs and challenges confronting users when they search for information. There is however, limited literature examining farmers' information seeking behaviour in developing countries (Phiri, Chipeta and Chawinga, 2018), with no documented study of the market information needs and information-seeking behaviour among smallholder livestock farmers within the study area. It is this research gap that the present study addressed.…”