ABSTRACT
This study examined the communication roles and use of social media tools among agricultural professionals in Edo State. The population of the study consisted of research institutes researchers, university lecturers in federal and state universities as well as extension workers in Edo Agricultural Development Programme (ADP). The study identified the perceived communication roles played by social media tools in the dissemination of vital information and the constraints faced by respondents in their use of social media tools. A multi stage sampling procedure was used for the selection of respondents in this study. Purposive and Simple Random Sampling was used to select 391 respondents (120 Extension workers, 149 Researchers and 122 Lecturers) in the study area. Data was gathered with the aid of a structured questionnaire, validated by expert judgement and were analysed using frequency counts, percentages and mean; while Logit regression was used as inferential statistic tool.
The outcome of the analysis showed that majority (67.21%) of the researchers were male, they were 40-49 years of age for researchers (42.62%). Majority (65.57%) of researchers were married and all (100%) were Christians. It showed that below average (47.54%) of the researchers had highest educational qualification of HND/BSc; majority (65.57%) had a family size of 4-6 and they all (100%) worked on full time and permanent basis. 67.21 percent were of rank Research Officer1, 57.38percent had working experience range of 5-9 years. It also showed that 59.02 percent had agricultural economics/ extension services as their training background and 40.98 percent of the respondents had little to no level of collaboration with extension workers and or lecturers before embarking on research work. For lecturers, findings of the analysis showed that a higher percentage (58.23%) of the lecturers were male, they had a mean age of 43, majority (88.61%) were married and 96.20 percent were Christians. 65.82 percent had Ph.D. as their highest educational qualification with a household size (73.42%) of 4-6 people. Majority (97.47%) of the lecturers were working fulltime and on a permanent basis and less than average (29.11%) having rank of professor, having working experience range of above 25 years (26.58%). The results revealed that less than average (29.11%) of lecturers had training background of agricultural economics extension services as their training background. 34.18 percent of the respondents had little to no level of collaboration with extension workers and or researchers before embarking on any research work. For extension workers, it revealed from the result of the analysis that majority (66.67%) of the extension workers were male, 75 percent were between 30-39 years of age, 88.33 percent were married and 97.62 percent were Christians. It showed that majority (88.10%) of the extension workers has HND/BSc as their highest educational qualification with a household size (47.62%) of 4-6 people. Majority (73.81%) of the extension workers had 11-15 years of training. About average (47.62%) belonged to job rank of block extension agent. Further analysis showed that above average of the respondents were working fulltime and 55.95 percent had job location in rural areas. It also showed that 58.33 percent had agricultural economics/ extension services as their training background with 40.48 percent having average level of collaboration lecturers and or researchers before embarking on extension work. Results of the study showed that respondents had access of social media tools predominantly Facebook and Whatsapp. Majority used Whatsapp, Email, Yahoo and Facebook. It showed that respondents found Whatsapp to be effective in information dissemination. Results depicted that the greatest significant challenges faced by respondents includes no regular power supply and bad internet network.Results of Binary Logistic Regression show that Sex (P≤0.00), and Training (P≤0.04) were the significant socio-economic variables with significant influence on social media effectiveness in information dissemination among Agricultural Professionals in the stud area.
Based on the findings of the study it can be concluded that social media plays a vital role in the provision and transfer of relevant information among agricultural professionals in Edo state. Stakeholders in various institutions should ensure that social media tools should be made easily available and accessible to respondents as they perform important communicative role especially that of information transfer and exchange. This helps reduce the constraints faced with sourcing information among respondents.
