The Assessment of Access to and Utilization of Agricultural Information on Bread Wheat by Smallholder Farmers of Gedab Hasasa District, West Arsi Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

This study seeks to determine access to and utilization of agricultural Information on Wheat bread by smallholder farmers of Gedab Hasasa district. The study was motivated by the fact that benefits of agricultural information communication development still need to be known among rural smallholder farmers in the district. It is also not effectively communicated to farmers especially in rural areas although access to and utilization modern information technology is largely available. This paper will examine the relevance of AIs to the rural farmers in Ethiopia. The objectives of the study are to assess the status of access and utilization of agricultural information of rural farmers in Gedab Hasasa district; to identify the constraints faced by farmers to access and utilization of agricultural information to rural farmers and to determine the relation between dependent and independent variables. The sample size was 138 respondents. Random sampling was used in identifying the respondents. A questionnaire was used to solicit responses from the respondents. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. As a descriptive statistic, frequency, percentage, minimum, maximum, and range was used. In relation to statistical tests, one-way ANOVA, F-value, Chi-square and spearman’s rho were applied. Data was analyzed using SPSS and presented in tables. From the study, except Age all explanatory variables were positively significant relation with information access and utilization categories of the farmers.  One of the major challenges to access to AIs was lack of awareness, inadequacy of facilities or professional and DAs biasness in the area. The others, such as lack of credit services, lack of money (Unaffordable price of inputs) and untimely delivery of agricultural inputs was the main constraints to utilized accessed information among the farmers. It was therefore, recommended the need for government, NGOs and public intervention to provide appropriate extension services, to improve DAs capacity through training and create conducive work environment and also establish training sectors for the rural farmers to access the agricultural information as well as to strength the capacity of the existing rural financial institutions and establishing new financial institution, encouraging the farmers to participate in cooperative organization and others local organization  to increase accessed information utilization of  the farmers. Keywords: Agricultural information, access, utilization, bread wheat production package, smallholder farmers, Ethiopia. DOI: 10.7176/JIEA/10-4-01 Publication date: September 30 th 2020