Effects of Indigenous Communication Methods on Agricultural Innovation Dissemination among Rural Women Farmers in Imo State, NigeriaThe study examined the effect of indigenous communication methods on innovation dissemination to women farmers In Imo State

Abstract

The study examined the effect of indigenous communication methods on innovation dissemination to women farmers In Imo State, Nigeria. The study among other specifics, investigated indigenous communication methods used in disseminating agricultural innovation among rural women in the study area; examined effects of indigenous communication method on innovation diffusion among rural women. Data were collected from 300 rural women farmers selected through multistage sampling procedure. Frequency count, Percent score and Analysis of variance were used to analyze the data collected. The result indicated that name (90.3%) was the major indigenous method used to communicate agricultural innovation in the study area. Majority (92.0%) of the rural women attested that the use of indigenous communication methods enabled those constrained by literacy to communicate (understand and relate) innovations to other users of agricultural information and technologies. The ANOVA test conducted produced an F-value of 1.69 which was not significant at 5% probability level when compared with the critical F-value of 2.90, implying that the use of indigenous communication methods in disseminating agricultural innovation across the 3 zones of Imo State did not differ significantly. The use of variety of local content communication media enables rural women farmers adequately understand and interpret technical messages.