Farmers’ knowledge and information support towards sustainable agriculture practices in Zimbabwe

Tapiwa Tamirepi

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

Farmers’ knowledge and information support systems are increasingly becoming critical in the practice of sustainable agriculture worldwide. The specific aims were to explore farmers’ sources of knowledge, assess the quality of the information provided by trainers and the trainer’s information delivery skills, and understand the barriers towards information transfer to farmers. In this study which focused on Goromonzi District in Mashonaland East Province in Zimbabwe, the researcher used a semi-structured questionnaire to gather data from 112 farmers to understand how knowledge and information support enhance the practice of sustainable agriculture practices. The researcher found that most farmers rely on social media, especially WhatsApp messenger, farmer-to-farmer and radio as the main sources of knowledge and less on extension officers, television and cooperatives. On the quality of knowledge received from train-ers, the study found that the farmers were positively commending the knowledge though they had misgivings about the trainers, citing lack of frequency on training. The main barriers standing in the farmers’ way of transferring information were the absence of information centers (91 percent), lack of technological devices (80 percent), lack of extension officers (77 percent), and late delivery of information (74 percent) of farmers agreed to these four aspects as barriers to information transferring. The researcher recommends that the government create policies that help rural farmers with information centers, which could be in schools or shopping centers to increase awareness and preparedness for agricultural activities.

Keywords

Knowledge, Information, Extension officers, Training, SAPS, Barrier

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 16. 4. 2023

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 28. 5. 2024
• Supervisor: Ing. Ing. William Nkomoki, Ph.D.
• Reader: Gospel Ayodele Iyioku

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Bachelor programme:
International Cooperation in Agricultural and Rural Development