Marketing Information Usage among Rice Producers in Benue State, Nigeria

This study analysed marketing information usage among rice producers in Benue State, Nigeria. Data were collected from 130 randomly sampled rice producers in Benue State using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyse data collected. The study showed that 53.85% of the respondents had access to marketing information. Other rice producers (53.85%) were the most readily available sources of agricultural marketing information among the respondents. The study showed that 65.38% of the respondents did not utilize marketing information. Furthermore, the study found that 66.92% of the respondents were not members of cooperative society. The level of marketing information utilization (from the listed information sources) among the respondents was generally low (73.33%) to medium (86.67%). The result of the binary logistic regression showed that at 5% level of significance, age, sales, other rice producers, education, off-farm employment and farm size had significant influence on farmers’ utilization of marketing information in the study area. The study showed that the most limiting constraint to accessing marketing information among the respondents was high cost of accessing information (74.62%). It is recommended that extension agency should encourage rice farmers to subscribe to the various rice farmers groups that abound in the state. This will make information easily accessible to them and enhance information utilization among the farmers. Extension agents should intensify their efforts so as to spend much time to teach farmers on the areas of needs. Mass Media extension teaching method should be used regularly to disseminate marketing information to rice farmers in such a manner that the farmers will understand the message. Furthermore, the formal information sources (print and electronic media) should double efforts to carry out their function of information generation and delivery to farmers.