Assessment of information needs of pig farmers in Makurdi local government area of Benue State, Nigeria

This study was carried out to access information needs of pig farmers in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State. Pig farmers formed the population of the study. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 82 respondents from 5 council wards from the study area. Data were collected using a well-structured questionnaire, and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The research findings revealed that majority (52.44 %) of the respondents were married. Most (47.56 %) of the respondents were aged between 21-30 years, had formal education (95.12%) and a family size 5-9 persons (56.10 %). The result of the research also revealed that most of the respondents have been farming for 1-4 years (54.88 %), earn income of below N250, 000 (71.95 %) and had a flock size below 20 pigs (60.98 %). The major area of information need is in the control of pests and diseases (x̅ = 2.04), feed (x̅ = 1.98) and marketing (x̅ = 1.84). The socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents that significantly affected their access to information need were education (W= 3.25) and farming experience (W= 4.26). Based on the finding of the research, it was recommended that information on disease and pest control be conveyed to the pig farmers by extension agents, and more extension agents employed to provide information to the farmers.