Information Sources to Cocoa Farmers on Indegenious Knowledge (IK) Utilisation in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed information sources to Indigenous Knowledge utilization among cocoa farmers in Ogun State. One hundred and fifty-two respondents were randomly sampled from two randomly selected communities in two local government areas of Ijebu North. Both primary and secondary data were used for the study. The data collected from the field were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage distributions. Also chi-square statistics was used in the data analysis for this study. The result of the finding on personal characteristics of the respondents revealed that 50.6 percent of the respondents were within the age range of 41 – 60 years and 84.2 percent were male. Also, 67.1 percent were married. The findings also revealed that 74.2 percent had above five hectares of cocoa farm and 85.5 percent of the respondents got information about Indigenous Knowledge through grandparents and parents. Some major constraints to the use of Indigenous Knowledge include high cost of Indigenous Knowledge, religious belief, inadequate information on Indigenous Knowledge and gender. The result of chi-square analysis revealed a significant relationship between age and information source to IK utilization also, there is a significant relationship between sex and information source to IK utilization among cocoa farmers in the study area. It is therefore recommended that Cocoa farmers should be encouraged to practice indigenous knowledge also, efforts should be geared towards documentation of indigenous knowledge so that it can be transferred from generation to generation.