TITLE:
Farmers’ Access to Agricultural Information Sources: Evidences from Rural Pakistan
AUTHORS:
Muhammad Yaseen, Shiwei Xu, Wen Yu, Sadia Hassan
KEYWORDS:
Extension, Farmer, Information Source, Pakistan
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Agricultural Chemistry and Environment,
Vol.5 No.1B,
April
30,
2016
ABSTRACT: The current study was conducted
to probe farmers’ accessible agricultural information sources in rural areas of
Pakistan. For this purpose a random sample of 160 households from four
districts of the Punjab province of Pakistan was selected. Data were collected
using validated and expert reviewed questionnaire with the help of interview
method. The results revealed that majority of farmers (47.5%) ranked
neighbor-friends-relatives as first source of information while 31.9% of
farmers ranked this source as second and 33.7% farmers’ ranked it as third
major source. With contrast to this very less farmers (10%) ranked agricultural
extension staff as first information source. Keeping in view the study results,
the performance of extension staff is not encouraging; therefore government
should plan and launch a policy to foster performance of public agricultural
extension system to fulfill the advanced technological needs of farmers to
flourish sustainable agriculture and rural development.