The Economics of Agricultural Information: Factors Affecting Commercial Farmers' Information Strategies in Ohio

Abstract

Information-seeking behavior is one of the most enduring subjects in the marketing and agribusiness literature. Based on a mail survey of 3,000 randomly selected farmers in Ohio, this study contributes empirical evidence about differences in farmers' information strategies regarding type, amount, and sources of information, and identifies factors that explain the variation in farmers' information search behavior. Farmers split into four distinct search typologies. Farmers' attitudes toward search, farm sales, years farming, Internet access, and farm type were good predictors of search strategies, underscoring the value of the clustering approach for farmer segmentation.T he commercial farming sector has long embraced the idea that information is critical to the financial success of agricultural producers. With agricultural production systems continuing to become more complex and information intensive, demands on farm decision-makers in acquiring, evaluating, and processing of information are ever increasing. U.S. farmers have rapidly adopted emerging information and communication technologies over the last decade and have better access to information than ever before (Batte; Gloy and Akridge, 2000; Tucker and Napier). At the same time, costs of information provision have greatly decreased which, in turn, led to a proliferation of information providers and resources available to farmers today. Because information has become so readily available and accessible, the ability to evaluate and process relevant information has become Florian Diekmann

Performance Measurement Model for Agriculture Extension Services for Sustainable Livelihood of the Farmers: Evidences from India

“…As the agriculture system become more complex, to remain competitive, famers need reliable, timely and relevant information inputs. In addition, given relatively less literacy level of farmer communities, the delivery mode of the information must be in the manner they prefer and understand [21]. Literature suggest that farmers need a breadth of information appropriate technology, optimal use of inputs, changing farm system options, input suppliers, intermediaries, quality specification, market and trade, time to buy inputs and sell produce, off farm generation options, implication of changing policy access to credit and loans etc.…”

Determinants of the Awareness and Use of Electronic Information Systems: Evidence From Farmers in Burkina Faso

“…From an economic point of view, the performance of agricultural markets depends in particular on the quality of the flow of information between the various actors in the agricultural sectors (Aker, 2010;Duchaufour et al, 2016). Access to market information enables users to make better decisions about investing, producing, selling or buying.…”

“…While the services offered by electronic information systems are important for generating efficiencies in production and improving farmers' incomes, they are not always adopted by farmers (Tadesse and Bahiigwa, 2015;Duchaufour et al, 2016;Beza et al, 2018). The reasons seem subtle and go beyond the rational decisions traditionally advocated in the economic approach.…”

Information seeking behaviour of grass root level extension workers of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Bangladesh

“…To maintain the proper flow of work SAAOs usually communicates frequently with a variety of information sources in order to carry out their day to day work. Information must be relevant and meaningful to farmers, in addition to being packaged and delivered in a way preferred by them (Diekmann, Loibl, and Batte 2009). In that case they face inimitable contests in finding that precise information ought to meet the needs of their clients.…”