Agricultural Knowledge In Agriculture

Knowledge and information are vital in rural farm development, thus access to agricultural knowledge is key to transforming the livelihoods of rural poor into one with increased income stability and food security (Lwoga et al., 2010). Information is linked to knowledge through the data–information–knowledge hierarchy (Frické, 2009) and knowledge is filtered from information. Access to agricultural knowledge is associated with acquiring skills and techniques for improving farming practices, sustaining the environment and optimizing production within a given farm size. This access to agricultural knowledge is influenced by infrastructure needed for information dissemination, which is not uniformly distributed within and between countries (Mtega

According to Nazari et al. (2011), agricultural research institutions come up with new technologies and developments, which must reach farmers through effective extension and mass media channels so that they can adopt new technologies and put them into use. If agricultural technologies and developments do not reach farmers, transforming agriculture and farmers’ livelihoods remains impossible. Thus, access to agricultural knowledge is a factor for change and progress in the agricultural sector (Mtega et al., 2011).

Many scholars pointed out that access to agricultural knowledge among farmers in developing countries has been a challenge for many years. Lwoga et al. (2010) revealed that inadequate access to agricultural knowledge limits farmers from making rational decisions regarding agricultural

It was thus recommended that rural farmers need to make use of electronic media as their major sources of information and government should make the relevant infrastructure readily available. The extension agents in the area should be more committed to their duties, more approachable and also improve their feedback mechanism promptly. According to Mtega et al. (2016), the limited number of demonstration plots, late delivery of information services, limited number of agricultural extension agents and poor information and communication technologies (ICTs) hindered access to agricultural knowledge among rice farmers in the Kilombero district of Tanzania. Crowder and Fortier (2000) showed that the shortcomings of traditional print and library-based methods of providing agricultural information to rural farmers who are generally illiterate and relatively remote from formal sources of information limit the access to agricultural knowledge. Aina (2007) suggested that farmers could benefit from global information if information centres (i.e. Telecentres) that were equipped with all information and communication gadgets were available in rural areas to improve access to agricultural information. Lwevo et al. (2014) mentioned that