Abstract

Smallholder farmers have different information seeking behaviors which are changing through time. However, as far as the authors’ knowledge is concerned, there is no research carried out to identify it in the study area. Therefore, this research is to reveal the information seeking behavior of the Abergelle woreda smallholder farmers. For the research design, from the 19 rural kebeles of the woreda, 5 kebele were randomly selected and 152 household head were selected by using simple random sampling technique proportion to their population size from the sampled kebeles. The study adopts both primary (household survey and focus group discussions); and secondary data sources (relevant published and unpublished materials). To analyze sources of information and information seeking behavior of the smallholder farmers, frequency and ranking were employed. The findings revealed that smallholder farmers prefer to seek information from farmers, agricultural professionals, health extension workers, radio and mobile-phone. The main challenges for seeking information, among others are shortage of infrastructure, lack of ICT and service fee, lack of interest and inadequate users’ skill and knowledge. It is concluded that smallholder farmers’ use multiple sources of information as no one source is sufficient in itself. Finally, it is advisable to repackage agricultural information into various formats to meet smallholder farmers’ information seeking behavior.

Key words: Information seeking behavior, smallholder farmers, Tigray, Ethiopia.