Sources of agricultural information for women farmers in Tanzania

Abstract

Women farmers constitute the vast majority of agricultural producers in Tanzania; however, it is not clear where they obtain information on modern farming innovations. Knowing these sources will enable the government and international aid organizations to more effectively channel information for increased productivity, leading to national food security, increased incomes for farm families and promoting gender parity in Tanzania. This study, which was carried out among 300 women farmers in Hai and Kilosa districts of Kilimanjaro and Morogoro regions respectively, aimed at identifying their sources of agricultural information. The theory that guided this study was Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations, especially Rogers and Shoemaker’s Source-Message-Channel-Receiver-Effect (SMCRE) model. The study, which yielded a high response rate of 96%, found that radio and agricultural extension workers were the primary sources of agricultural information for women farmers. Therefore, the researchers recommend that the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives (MAFC) should focus on community radio as the primary source of information dissemination to farmers and supply rural households with solar-powered radios free of charge or at subsidized cost. The finding that extension workers are women farmers’ second main source of information on farming innovations also defeats the general contention that male extension workers are inaccessible to female farmers. A peculiar finding was that even though women farmers have access to mobile phones they do not use them to obtain agricultural information, perhaps, because the MAFC does not have a system for farmers to call in for information.

Management information sources and communication strategies for commercially oriented smallholder beef cattle producers in Limpopo province, South Africa

“…The observation that mass media-based sources were not preferred does not agree with the previous findings by Motiang and Webb (2015) and Mtega et al (2016) who found that radio and television were significant sources of information for the smallholder farmers. Also, a study by Isaya (2016) showed that over 50% of the women farmers used radio as a primary source of information. Failure by farmers to use mass media sources in the current study could be attributed to factors such as non-availability of support infrastructure, high costs of electronic gadgets and servicing fees (Brhane et al, 2017).…”

Women's access to agricultural technologies in rice production and processing hubs: A comparative analysis of Ethiopia, Madagascar and Tanzania

“…In spite of such preferences for female extension officers, the number of female extension officers is still small in Tanzania (Due et al, 1997;Isaya, 2016). However, unlike the Ethiopian farmers, the Tanzanian female farmers acknowledge that they receive adequate support by extension officers and that they are not considered less of a farmer in comparison to their husbands.…”

An Integrated Conceptual Framework for ICT-based Market Information Source Adoption among Smallholder Farmers

“…The importance of delineating information sources is highlighted by Adegbola and Gardebroek (2007), who found group differences in adoption behaviour between farmers informed by extension agents and those informed by fellow farmers. Isaya, Agunga and Sanga (2016) also emphasised the importance of understanding how rural farmers source their information; this, in their view, enables the dissemination of effective communication using accessible channels to the targeted audience.…”

“…These messages are communicated using available channels (C), which may include ICT-enhanced tools, often used interchangeably when referring to information sources in the literature (Msoffe and Ngulube, 2017;Osei et al, 2016). These channels (sources) are considered worthy of researching to provide insight on how farmers receive (R) information (Isaya et al, 2016), and in this instance, the effect (E) is considered as their action or feedback to the market actors.…”