Appraisal of Crop Farmers' Access to Agricultural Information for Enhanced Food Security in the COVID-19 Era in Nigeria

This study. "Appraisal of Crop Farmers' access to Agricultural Information for Enhanced Food Security in the COVID-19 era in Nigeria” investigated how crop farmers have access to agricultural information and the value of their exposure to such information on food security in the COVID-19 in Nigeria. Specifically, the objectives of the study were: to find out the kinds of agricultural information accessible for crop farmers: examine the kinds of crops that farmers access information on: ascertain the sources from which crop farmers access their agricultural information: determine the source of agricultural information more credible to crop farmers: investigate the extent to which crop farmers satisfy with the agricultural information accessible for them: and explore how the agricultural information accessed is used by farmers to enhance the production crops and food security in the COVID-19 era in Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted and the questionnaire was used as the research instrument for data collection. The population of the study comprised 2708690 registered crop farmers in Nigeria from which a sample size of 1067 was statistically drawn, using Qualtrics online sample size calculator. Multistage sampling involving stratified, purposive and proportionate techniques were used in sampling the respondents. Primary and secondary sources were used to collect the data while descriptive method was adopted for data analysis with Multivariate Frequency Distribution Tables and SPSS used as the statistical tools for data analysis in this study. Findings revealed that information on fertilizer application was accessed by crop farmers more followed by weed control, while there was a decline in the rate of information ’ accessibility for loans application, pest control, seeds selection, agric marketing among others. The information accessible to crop farmers enabled them to engage more in timely fertilizer application and early control of weeds while there was poor application of other forms of agricultural information. The study concluded by stressing that access to adequate and useful agricultural information by crop farmers is essential for enhanced food production as inadequate access to such information will result to poor application of agricultural innovations capable of preventing the country from attaining food sufficiency and security. The study recommended amongst other considerations-the prioritizing of agricultural information to increase farmers' access to agricultural information. Training of crop farmers through workshops and seminars with strict adherence to COVID-19 guidelines was also considered a milestone in the enhancement of food security.