The study examined the socio-economic characteristics affecting information source use among farmers in Ikwuano
Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to ascertain the socio-economic
characteristics of the farmers in the study area; determine the available information source; identify the extent of
usage of information sources by farmers; assess farmers’ attitude towards the use of information sources and; identify
the constraints encountered by farmers in using information sources. Eighty-two (82) farmers were randomly selected
from the two agricultural blocks in the Local Government Area using purposive sampling method. Structured
questionnaire and Focus group discussion were used to elicit information from the respondents. Frequency
distributions, percentages, mean and regression analyses were employed to analyze the data collected. Results showed
that the area was fairly dominated by males (52.44%). The respondents had a mean age of 46 years. About 85.37% of
the respondents were married with a mean household size of 5 members. The findings also revealed that 84.15% of
the respondents had some form of formal education and an average income of N86,735.71k per annum. About 60.98%
of the respondents had some contacts with the extension agents. It was also revealed that the level of available
information sources (36.25%) was poor. The mean extent of usage for indigenous information sources was 1.2 and
1.1 for modern sources. The results also showed that the respondents showed equal positive attitude (2.0) to both
indigenous and modern source of information. The factors that significantly influenced the use of information sources
were marital status (3.54) and household size (3.62) at 1% level of probability and education (1.74) at 10% level of
probability. Among the major constraints that affected the use of modern information sources were: high cost of
mass media (2.7), lack of access to mass media information (2.7) and unstable electric powers supply (2.7). The study
recommended that Government, agricultural research institutes, agricultural universities and non-governmental
organizations should provide more information on agriculture to farmers. Communication centers should be provided
to increase farmers’ access to information