Farmers’ use of Global System for Mobile for Communication in the Fadama III Project in Northern Senatorial Zone of Taraba State, Nigeria

SALISU AUDU BABA

The study examined the farmers’ use of Global System for Mobile (GSM) for communication among farmers/beneficiaries in the Fadama III project in Northern Senatorial Zone Taraba State, Nigeria. The population for the study included all beneficiaries/farmers under the Fadama III project. A purposive sampling was adopted because of the accessibility of the selected three Local Government Areas (LGAs), (Ardo-Kola, Jalingo & Lau) throughout the year. Five Fadama User Groups (FUGs) were randomly selected from each LGA to constitute fifteen FUGs for the study. From each FUG, ten respondents were drawn randomly to give a sample size for the study. Primary data were used for the study through the use of questionnaire. Data collected for this research were analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency (f), percentage (%) and mean score (M). The study revealed that majority (68%) of the respondents has farm sizes of between 1-2 hectares. The study further showed that the average years of farming experience among the respondents were 10.5 years with the majority (65.3%) of the respondents had between 1-10 years farming experience. Greater proportion (34%) of the respondents had annual income of between N200, 001 – N 250, 000 with the mean (M) annual income of the respondents calculated to be N142, 203.80. Results of the study also revealed that majority (95.3%) of the fadama III respondents owned GSM phone and about (90%) of the respondents reported that they utilize GSM for communicating information on fadama III activities with the officials/personnel of the project. In Fadama III project also, respondents’ key areas of communications with personnel of the project included: group formation (88%), mobilization of members for participation in Fadama III programmes and activities (87.3%), awareness creation of Fadama III intervention (82.7%), capacity building activities (81.3%), convening of Fadama User Group (FUG)/FCA meetings (81.3%), sub-project preparation and management (80.7%), advisory services and input support services (80%) and environmental/social friendly practices (72.7%). The study showed that the mean scores of information needs by the respondents on the fadama III activities as follow: adoption of environmental friendly practices (M = 1.55), operation and maintenance of infrastructure such as agricultural production assets (M = 1.21), fisheries equipment, agro-processing equipment and community social assets (M = 1.15), operation and maintenance of irrigation facilities (M = 1.15), preparation of local development plans following participatory and socially inclusive processes, (M = 1.28), techniques for participatory planning and conflict management (M = 1.31), awareness raising strategy (M = 1.13) and capacity building for environmental screening, review and enforcement (M = 1.36) respectively. The study recommended that information and communication unit of fadama III project should collaborate with other media outfits and extension unit to disseminate agro-information to the benefits of not only fadama III beneficiaries, but the generality of the farming families in the study LGAs and State as a whole. This can serve as a method of improving farmers’ level of awareness and education

Select Volume / Issue:

• Volume 7,Issue 2, Sept. 2018

Year:

2018

Type of Publication:

Article

Keywords:

Fadama III Project; Global System for Mobile; Communication; Northern Senatorial Zone

Journal:

IJAIR

Volume:

7

Number:

2

Pages:

144-149

Month:

September

ISSN:

2319-1473