CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY    

The success of agricultural development programmes in developing countries largely depends on the nature and extent of use of mass media in mobilizing farmers for the need for development. Communication has been acknowledged for playing, a prominent role in the success of agricultural production and adoption of innovations. The planners in developing countries realized that the development of agriculture could be hastened with the effective use of mass media (Global Communication Research association, 2003). Mass media has been defined as any material, objects, instruments or system which serves to communicate information including letters, pamphlets, and other written and printed materials, all types of cinema films, radio, television and video system (Adams, 1982).

Mass media was found to be a veritable tool for creating awareness and mobilizing farmers on the importance of change towards new science-based agricultural findings. According to Oyegbami and Fabosoro (2003), the usefulness of research results is generally achieved through an efficient mechanism of information transfer to the appropriate target (farmers). The transfer of the information to the target audience at the required time could only be achieved by the use of mass media depending on the purpose and the number of farmers to be reached (Nwachukwu and Onuekwusi, 2005).

Among the mass media means of communication, radio is found to be the most important means of communicating agricultural information to the rural farmers. In the opinion of Kuponiyi (2000), radio is one of the broadcast medium which the rural populations are very familiar with and which almost all experts identified to be the most appropriate for rural emancipation programme. This is because radio beats distance and has immediate effect on farmers. Furthermore, radio is favored as a medium of communication in rural communities because of the advantages ascribed to it, inform of transcending the barrier of illiteracy and demanding less intellectual exertion than the print media massages (Folarin, 1990).

The terms rural radio and television and community radio have come to be used interchangeably to describe FM stations established to broadcast to a local and predominantly rural audience. The growth of rural radio and television stations over the past few decades reflects both the improvements in information technologies and the shifting development paradigm towards a more participatory style of information and knowledge transfer. The ‘community’ aspect of local radio and television initiatives combines a number of approaches. The most obvious is that a local radio or television station gives the community a voice and by encouraging the active participation of the audience in the making and scheduling of programs this voice can play an empowering and potentially uniting function. The community focus can also serve another function: by employing members of the community both as station staff, such as radio and television presenters, correspondents and program facilitators or animators, and as intellectual resources, for example providing program material and content. This not only reinforces the participatory nature of the development approach but ensures local ownership and a greater chance of sustainability.

Agriculture is an important profession in Nigeria. It is in fact the main thrust of its national survival as it provides jobs for about 65% of the population (Windapo & Afolayan, 2005). Agricultural development and rural development are closely intertwined and any attempt at developing the agricultural sector will have a multiplier effect on a large proportion of the Nigerian population and the rural economy in general. Being a human centered endeavor, agricultural and rural development cannot be sustainably achieved without a strong agricultural extension department.

Yahaya and Badiru (2002) hinted of the limited number of extension agents in Nigeria as in many other countries which provided a premise for the media to act as complements of the extension arm. Experience has shown that government which is the largest employer of extension agents may not be too willing to continuously employ more extension personnel particularly due to the persistent complaints from government circles that much of the government revenue is spent on staff salaries.

Radio broadcasts are used in a number of ways. According to Iwu and Nzeako (2010) these are formal and non-formal educational broadcasting. Formal educational broadcasting instructional purposes include a formal syllabus and grade system broadcast.

Radio listening involves the acquisition of functional knowledge that is relevant to the adults‟ social working functions and informal educational broadcasting: This refers to daily encounter with radio programmes that helps an individual acquire knowledge. Therefore, this study focuses on the assessment of listeners on agricultural programmes on rural area based radio, a case study of Lagelu FM 96.7.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Radio is the preferred medium in developing countries to pass information aimed at increased development as has been shown in audience surveys. The coverage of agriculture content on radio has not been adequate, a presentation of findings of a comparative study carried out in

Kenya and Burkina Faso on the use of radio in communicating agricultural biotechnology by Dr. Oriare the principle investigator at the 46th session of OFAB confirmed the popularity of radio but also indicated that ―agriculture biotechnology is not adequately covered by mass media in a way that could enable informed public debate and policy choices, demonstrated by inadequate treatment and placement of stories.‖

Some farmers do have the leisure of time to listen to radio and this has keep them in the dark from learning new things from the agricultural radio programmes. Aside from lack of time, some small scale farmers do not have radio they can listen t and they are also not aware of ther agricultural radio programmes.

Most farmers don’t have the necessary resources to implement the knowledge they acquire from the agricultural radio programmes and this has been a major concern among farmers. They do not have the manpower, modern technology, financial strength to put into action what they have been exposed to through the agricultural radio programmes.

Although it is acknowledged that radio is powerful the medium has to be scrutinized in totality.

Myers (2009) states that ―while there are some proven successes in terms of radio development

to date there are still some question marks over radio‘s impact. That systematic and reliable data on the radio sector is under developed or nonexistent‖. Other scholars share this perspective that there are gaps that need to be addressed. ―Lack of systematic methods to measure the impact of the programmes have on the population make evaluating their effectiveness difficult‖ (Girard, 1992:117). These problems make it glaring that there is a need to carry out an assessment of listeners on agricultural programmes on rural area based radio.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY     

The general objective of this study is carry out an assessment of listeners on agricultural programmes on rural area based radio, a case study of Lagelu FM 96.7. the specific objectives include the following:

1.     To ascertain the population of farmers that listen to agricultural radio programmes on Lagelu FM 96.7.

2.     To find out the importance of Lagelu FM 96.7 agricultural radio programmes on small scale farmers.

3.     To examine if farmers have the resources to implement the knowledge they acquire from the agricultural radio programmes on Lagelu FM 96.7.

4.     To assess farmers’ satisfaction on the agricultural radio programmes on Lagelu FM 96.7.

5.     To investigate the impact of agricultural radio programmes on the productivity of farmers.