ABSTRACT
The study examined the climate change information needs of small scale farmers in Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State. It described the Socio-economic characteristics of small-scale yam farmers, ascertained the knowledge level of small scale yam farmers on the causes of climate change, Perceived strategies for improving information dissemination on climate change issues to small-scale yam farmers, identified information needed by the small scale yam farmers on climate change and identified factors militating against the effective communication of climate change information.
A multi-stage sampling procedure was used in selecting 120 yam farmers in Abia State. Data collected were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, mean, Pearson correlation and chi-square.
The Results indicated that respondents were middle age with mean age of 55 years, Farm size was 50%.Knowledge level of small-scale yam farmers on climate change was 97%,Perceived strategies for improving information dissemination on climate change issues among small-scale yam farmers: Radio 97%,Mobile Phone 86%, Neighbors 89%,friends 92% and Salesman 67%. Identified information needed by the small-scale farmers yam farmers: Causes 96%,Effects 93%,Mitigation strategies 98%, Adaptation strategies 88%. Factors militating against the effective communication of climate change information: Very serious. The result show that the there is no significant relationship between the socio-economic characteristics of small-scale yam farmers of climate change issues and their information needs. This is so as the significant value is placed at .758> 0.005, it shows that the socio-economic characteristics does not determine the information needs of small scale yam farmers. We rejected the alternate hypothesis and accepted the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant relationship between the socio-economic characteristics of small-scale yam farmers of climate change and information needs.
