COMMUNICATION FACTORS AFFECTING FARMER ADOPTION OF SELECTED INNOVATIONS IN OWERRI AGRICULTURAL ZONE OF IMO STATE

The study determined communication factors affecting adoption of selected innovation by farmers in Owerri Agricultural Zone of Imo State, Nigeria in 2009. Specific objectives were to: examine how often farmers receive farm information, determine the level of awareness of the innovations, ascertain the extent of adoption of the innovations, and assess communication factors affecting adoption of innovation. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 60 farmers in the study area. A sample size of sixty respondents was used for the study. Data were collected through a set of structured questionnaire and interview schedule. Analysis was done using descriptive (frequencies and percentages) and inferential statistics (chi-square and spearman correlation). Results show that farmers receive farm information on very regular basis (34%). it was also found that all the variables of the technology package were statistically significant at either 1% or 5% levels. This indicates that they influenced levels of adoption separately and jointly. Result further shows that all the communication factors were statistically significant at 1% level of probability except the power failure during air time programme which was significant at 5% level.