Scholars Bulletin (SB)
Volume-4 | Issue-07 | 628-635
Research Article
Relevance of Vernacular Radio Stations’ Agricultural Programs in Utilization of Agricultural Information among Farmers in Molo Sub County, Nakuru Kenya
Teresia Wacheke, Dr. John Ndavula, Dr. Peter Koome
Published : July 30, 2018
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the relevance of vernacular radio stations’ agricultural programs in influencing utilization of agricultural information among farmers in Molo Sub County, Nakuru Kenya. Agricultural sector provides a livelihood for about 80% of Kenya‘s population and employs more than 70% of the rural population hence it remains valuable for the provision of food and employment opportunities. Vernacular radio stations, as part of mass communication, has a wider audience in rural areas compared to other forms of media outlets. Therefore, they have led to the passing of novel information on agriculture to farmers in Molo Sub County, Nakuru Kenya. This study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design whereby 8,445 households in Molo sub-county were targeted. Cluster sampling method was used to determine the number of participants that was selected through systematic sampling. The target population was 155 respondents in Molo Sub County Nakuru Kenya and the response rate was 94.9%. A Questionnaire was used to collect data and pilot testing was done in Subukia Sub County Nakuru, Kenya. Descriptive statistics showed that 83.9% of the respondents listen to the agricultural program while 16.1% disagreed to listening to agricultural activity. The study established that there exists a statistically significant relationship between demographic characteristics, relevance of agricultural programs, institutional factors and utilization of agricultural information (r= 0.644; p<0.05, r= 0.503; p<0.05, r= 0.463; p<0.05) respectively. The study concluded that demographic characteristics had a very high influence in the utilization of agricultural information among farmers in Molo Sub County, Nakuru Kenya. This deduced that radio agricultural programs are useful to farmers in Kenya and have greatly influenced their farming practices. The study recommended that there is a need for more effort in providing agricultural information programmes to farmers.