AN ASSESSMENT OF LISTENERS ON AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMMES ON RURAL AREA BASED RADIO, A CASE STUDY OF LAGELU
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 RADIO LISTENERSHIP
2.1.1 LANGUAGE USED IN RADIO LISTENERSHIP
2.2 UTILISATION OF RADIO MESSAGES
2.3 THE STRENGTH OF RURAL RADIO AND TELEVISION AS AN EXTENSION TOOL
2.4 PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION IN RADIO AND TELEVISION PROGRAMS
2.5 RADIO AND TELEVISION AND THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR
2.6 FARM RADIO INTERNATIONAL
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
3.3 STUDY POPULATION
3.4 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
3.5 DATA FOR THE STUDY: INSTRUMENTATION
3.5.1 INSTRUMENTATION
3.5.2 VALIDITY OF INSTRUMENT
3.6 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 DATA ANALYSIS (QUESTIONNAIRE)
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
5.2 CONCLUSION
5.3 RECOMMENDATION
REFERENCES
QUESTIONNAIRE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The success of agricultural development programmes in developing countries largely depends on innovationsthe 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 eective 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 erect 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 shining 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 sta, 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 erect 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 sta 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.
1.2 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 the 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 non existent. 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.
1.3 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:
- To ascertain the population of farmers that listen to agricultural radio programmes on Lagelu FM 96.7.
- To find out the importance of Lagelu FM 96.7 agricultural radio programmes on small scale farmers.
- To examine if farmers have the resources to implement the knowledge they acquire from the agricultural radio programmes on
Lagelu FM 96.7. - To assess farmers’ satisfaction on the agricultural radio programmes on Lagelu FM 96.7.
- To investigate the impact of agricultural radio programmes on the productivity of farmers
AN ASSESSMENT OF LISTENERS ON AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMMES ON RURAL AREA BASED RADIO, A CASE STUDY OF LAGELU
