<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Given the soap opera’s potential to engender behaviour learning and meet the information needs of farmers, this paper sought to establish farmers’ propensity to use soap opera for sourcing agricultural information in Southwest Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to draw representative samples (150 farmers) in this study. Using interview schedule, data were elicited on farmers’ personal characteristics, awareness about the use of soap opera, perceived benefits of soap opera and proclivity to use it for sourcing agricultural information. Data were analysed using descriptive (frequencies, percentages, means) and inferential (Chi-square and PPMC) statistics at <italic>P</italic> = 0.05. Farmers’ age, years of schooling and household size were 52.1 ± 11.4 years, 10.5 ± 4.6 years and 5.9 ± 2.4 persons, respectively. Majority of the farmers (86.0%) had heard about soap opera and 76.0% heard of different soaps in the last couple of years and more than half (53.3%) had heard of different soaps from both radio and television. However, 90.7% did not know any kind of soap opera that was used to promote agriculture. More than half of the farmers (56.7%) had high inclination for sourcing agricultural information using soap opera. There was a significant correlation between farmers’ perceived benefits (r = 0.36; <italic>P</italic> = 0.00) and proclivity to use soap opera for sourcing agricultural information. Farmers’ positive proclivity to use soap implies that soap opera strategy has potentials to benefit farmers as a source of agricultural information; therefore, soap opera should be considered as veritable avenue for agricultural information dissemination in Southwest Nigeria.</p></abstract>

Given the soap opera’s potential to engender behaviour learning and meet the information needs of farmers, this paper sought to establish farmers’ propensity to use soap opera for sourcing agricultural information in Southwest Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to draw representative samples (150 farmers) in this study. Using interview schedule, data were elicited on farmers’ personal characteristics, awareness about the use of soap opera, perceived benefits of soap opera and proclivity to use it for sourcing agricultural information. Data were analysed using descriptive (frequencies, percentages, means) and inferential (Chi-square and PPMC) statistics at P = 0.05. Farmers’ age, years of schooling and household size were 52.1 ± 11.4 years, 10.5 ± 4.6 years and 5.9 ± 2.4 persons, respectively. Majority of the farmers (86.0%) had heard about soap opera and 76.0% heard of different soaps in the last couple of years and more than half (53.3%) had heard of different soaps from both radio and television. However, 90.7% did not know any kind of soap opera that was used to promote agriculture. More than half of the farmers (56.7%) had high inclination for sourcing agricultural information using soap opera. There was a significant correlation between farmers’ perceived benefits (r = 0.36; P = 0.00) and proclivity to use soap opera for sourcing agricultural information. Farmers’ positive proclivity to use soap implies that soap opera strategy has potentials to benefit farmers as a source of agricultural information; therefore, soap opera should be considered as veritable avenue for agricultural information dissemination in Southwest Nigeria.

Farmers’ proclivity to use soap opera for sourcing agricultural information in Southwest Nigeria

Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development

Agricultura Tropica et Subtropica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Given the soap opera’s potential to engender behaviour learning and meet the information needs of farmers, this paper sought to establish farmers’ propensity...

Farmers’ proclivity to use soap opera for sourcing agricultural information in Southwest Nigeria

Published Online: Apr 07, 2019

Page range: 155 - 163

Received: Dec 29, 2017

Accepted: Jan 20, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ats-2018-0018

Keywords
radio, television, soap opera awareness, perceived benefits

© 2018 Tope Adejoju Ladigbolu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Farmers’ proclivity to use soap opera for sourcing agricultural information in Southwest Nigeria

Published Online: Apr 07, 2019

Page range: 155 - 163

Received: Dec 29, 2017

Accepted: Jan 20, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ats-2018-0018

Keywordsradio, television, soap opera awareness, perceived benefits

© 2018 Tope Adejoju Ladigbolu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
radio, television, soap opera awareness, perceived benefits