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Africa Media Review Vol. 2 No. 3 1988© African Council on Communication Education

Agricultural Communication and theAfrican Non-Literate Farmer:

The Nigerian Experience

E.O. Soola *

ABSTRACT

This article examines Nigeria's need for improvedagricultural production and underscores the strategicimportance of the country's rural economy. It profiles theNigerian non-literate farmer, critically re-examines theconcept of literacy and considers the factor of the orallyliterate in agricultural communication. Of the various factorsresponsible for poor agricultural production, the articleconcentrates on the need for effective dissemination ofscientific agricultural information. It works at thecommunication needs of the non-literate farmer andappraises communication and information flow within thisenvironment. It then identifies the various channels by whichthe rural farmer can be reached and influenced.

It submits on a final note that illiteracy in the Westernsense does not preclude access to scientifically basedagricultural information and adoption of improvedagricultural practices.

* Dr. E.O. Soola is a Lecturer at the Language ArtsDepartment of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

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La communcitlon agricole et la paysan analphabete enAfrique: l'expfirience du Nigeria

RESUME

Cet article etudie le besoin pour le Nigeria d'ameliorer saproduction agricole et met en exergue l'importance strategiquede l'economic rurale. II presente le paysan nigerian non-alphabetise et procede a un examen critique du concept del'alphabetisation; il analyse le facteur de la litterature oraledans le cadre de la communciation agricole. Des diversfacteurs qui sont a la base de la mauvaise production agricole,1 article se concentre sur la necessite d'une disseminationeffective de rinformation scientifique agricole. II analyse lesbesoins de communication du paysan non-alphabetise etevalue la circulation de rinformation et de la communicationdans son environnement. Ensuite, il identifie les diverscanaux par lesequels ou peut atteindre et influencer le paysan.Enfin, il conclut que ranalphabetisme, au sens occidental, neferme pas l'acces a rinformation agricole scientifique ni aladoption de pratiques agricoles ameliorees.

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Introduction

Nigeria's need for improved agricultural production isincreasingly becoming more crucial in the face of a steadilyincreasing population, a dwindling external reserve and aglobal uncertainty about the future of oil - the nation's majorforeign exchange earner. Government's concern about thisworsening situation is manifest in its orchestrated call for areturn to the land. Even the industrial sector is currentlyfaced with the uneasy choice between generating itsagriculture-based raw material needs locally and grinding to atotal halt.

The Strategic Role of Nigeria's Rural Economy

Nigeria's rural economy is inseparably tied to the fortune, ormisfortune of the Nigerian non-literate farmers who form thebulk of the rural populace. Apart for its nutritional resourceswhich are vital for a healthy and productive citizenry,Nigeria's rural sector has a number of strategic roles to play inthe nation's march towards national development. First, itsproduce can boost export earnings which in turn can beutilised for the importation of machinery and raw materialsneeded for industrialisation. Second, the rural sector itselfconstitutes a vast consumer market for industrial goods.Third, political independence becomes more meaningful onlywhen backed by self-sufficiency in food production as a food-dependent nation is not only susceptible to internationalblackmail but can also easily have its sovereigntyundermined. Fourth, in a nation with embarrassingly highunemployment statistics, an increasing number of schooldropouts and a growing sense of job insecurity in both theprivate and public sectors, an improved rural economy canserve as a disincentive for rural-urban influx and itsattendant evils of overcrowding, pollution and drift tocriminality.

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The above underscores the urgency of Nigeria's need forimproved agricultural production. The country cannot affordthe current slow pace of development in its agricultural sectorif it is to avert economic and food crises of major dimensionsin the immediate future.

The current level of productivity in the rural areas,measured against what scientific research has proved feasiblemanifests a classic example of a vast untapped potential of therural sector (Mchombi 1981). No nation, particularly amongthe less developed countries (LDCs) where the majority of thepopulation lives in the rural areas can confidently lay claimto a truly national development if its development isconcentrated in urban areas.

Williams and Williams (1978) look back nostalgically atNigeria's 'days of agricultural glory1, when, between 1940 and1960, exports of palm produce, cocoa and groundnuts doubledwhile cotton exports increased 300 percent and rubber, twentyfold. Also during this period, Nigeria emerged as the largestgroundnut exporter in the world. In the same vein,(Famolriyo, 1985) has looked back to the pre- 1960s whenagriculture contributed about two-thirds of the country'sGross Domestic Product (GDP). During that period, over 85percent of Nigeria's foreign exchange earnings came fromexports of agricultural produce. However, the situation hassince changed for the worse with the sector accounting for amere 5 percent of the country's total exports and 70 percent ofits total non-oil exports (Famolriyo, 1983).

Of the various factors - cultural, economic, informational,managerial, technological, political - responsible for thisworsening situation, we are concerned in this paper withinformation, a vital constituent without which the goal ofimproved agricultural production will painfully continue tobe elusive. Wali (1981) underscores the importance ofinformation when he observes that information, whetherstored on paper or magnetic tape, or in the human mind, is afundamental requisite for ensuring rationality and cohesionin decision-making. Lack of investment in information, Waliargues, results in the creation of an "information-poor" and"information-rich" society which tends to perpetrate andperpetuate the unequal distribution of gains in thedevelopment process. Mosher (1961) has also examined thepositive influence of information on improved agricultural

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development. He is of the view that scientific or technologicalinformation must be regarded as an essential ingredient foragricultural development. Williams and Williams (1978) havealso noted that improved technology is to the farmer whatfood is to the human body - a life's sustenance - and argue thatcommunication of improved technology is an importantfactor in the adoption of improved agricultural practices.

Who is the Nigerian Non-literate Farmer?

The Nigerian non-literate farmer lives in the rural areaswhere, incidentally, most Nigerians have their roots; he hasaccess to about 80% of the total land resource and isresponsible for over 95% of the nation's agriculturalproduction (Oyaide, 1983). Unfortunately, like most otherNigerian rural dwellers, the Nigerian non-literate farmer is amarginalised citizen.

The Nigerian non-literate farmer is a small landowner oreven a squatter. For long, this category of farmer has suffereda great deal of deprivation. Neglected by successivegovernments, researchers, extension agents, agriculturalinput suppliers, banks and other financial institutions;deprived of basic social amenities like drinkable water,electricity supply, hospitals and all-season motorable roadsfor transporting his produce to marketing centres, theNigerian non-literate farmer is exploited by middlemen,produce merchants and opportunist city dwellers who takeadvantage of the farmer's bouts of surpluses and lack ofpreservatories to pay him ridiculously low prices for hisproduce.

The Nigerian non-literate farmer engages in subsistencefarming, employs traditional methods and utilisestraditional tools. He and his peers have been categorised as"partial economic men" because their duality in goalattainment (Williams and Williams, 1983) calls for farmingas a means both of sustenance and cash income. He is thusconsidered not only as someone outside the country'smonetary economy but also as a poor credit risk. The dual setgoal and the farmer's small land holdings force him intomixed cropping which inevitably reduces his yields even whenall necessary technological inputs have been added.

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The Factor of Illiteracy

The choice of the non-literate fanner as the focus of thispaper is deliberate. It is borne out of this writer's perceptionthat there is a small but growing nucleus of literate farmers,and if the on-going retrenchment exercise persists and thecurrent campaign for a return to the land is heeded, thenumber of literate farmers is likely to increase appreciablysoon. And while conceding that literate farmers, like theirnon-literate counterparts, require specialized, technologicalinformation, the literate farmers' search for and sourceutilisation may be enhanced by the factor of their literacy.Chole and Rahudkar (1978) concluded after their joint studyon source-credibility pattern among small and big farmers intwo Indian villages that literacy enhances source utilisation.However, since creating a literate citizenry is not only anexpensive venture but also has to be a gradual process, andsince the nation's agricultural needs cannot be delayed, theconcept of illiteracy needs to be re-examined. Such a re-examination is done in this paper with a view to determiningwhat constitutes illiteracy and whether illiteracy isnecessarily inimical to adoption of agricultural innovation,or whether, in fact, the current apathy or even resistance toadoption is not, to a great extent, a factor of communicationproblem.

Conventionally, and by Western standards, the termilliteracy is understood to mean inability to read and write.This factor, scholars believe, restricts one's horizon incommunication. Literacy, on the other hand, equips one withthe ability to read and write. It also increases one'scommunication skills through the ability to communicateover wide distances in space and time (Aboyade, 1981).Okedara (1981) has also considered the factor of illiteracy inrural communities. The non-literate, in rural communities,according to him, belongs in a traditional society - a societywhose structure is developed within limited productionfunctions. Illiteracy, he has suggested, is a state which affectsways of thinking, levels of perception and consequently theability to conceptualise things outside one's immediateenvironment.

The above view illustrates some of the epithets that havebeen bandied around about the rural non-literate. However,

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the idea of literacy as the ability to read and write as isgenerally conceived in Western societies is now beingchallenged. Aboyade (1981) has argued that it is incorrect toclassify people who keep alive the substance of their culturalhistory through oral methods as non-literate simply becausethey lack the knowledge of writing. She is of the view that aconcept of literacy which perceives literacy and writing as oneand the same thing ignores the factor of the orally literate.

In traditional societies, custodians of tradition such as'Ifa1 priests are men who are committed to a life-long rigorousmental training by which the whole corpus gets committedinto memory and can be recited at a moment's notice. Also,traditional healers - mean and women - commit into memorya repertoire of medicinal preparations for various ailmentsand diseases. They learn by heart thousands of ingredientsthat go into the making of such preparations and can readilyretrieve from their 'data bank" not only the finer details of theingredients but also the intricately worded incantation thatgo with some of the preparations. Thus, traditional societiesabound with men and women of considerable learning,wisdom and understanding. Such men and women cannot bewritten off as non-literate.

The non-homogeneity (Lawani, 1981) of the ruralcommunity must also be appreciated. While most are farmers,others belong in other professions or occupations. Among thenon-literate farmers, some are tradition-bound, others areprogressive. And while some are indifferent even to thegoings-on around them, others are information-conscious.

What this new concept of literacy seems to suggest is thatdevelopment communication among the so-called tradition-bound, illiterate farmers may not be an impossible task afterall. Perhaps what is required of the communicator is toappreciate and understand the non-literate farmer's culture,existing traditional farming practices, his felt needs andother factors that condition his decisions and actions. Thischaracterization is crucial for successful communicationwith the non-literate farmer. The communicator will alsoneed to avail himself of the rich traditional channels ofcommunication to reach the non-literate farmer. Thecommunicator's gospel of scientific agricultural informationand the innovation it offers are likely to be ignored or resistedif the communicator is culturally distant and urban-oriented,and if the technological inputs he is recommending are not

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within the physical and financial reach of the non-literatefarmer.

Communication Needs of the Non-Literate Fanner

The communication needs of the non-literate farmer is asvast as It is varied. It spans the whole spectrum of the farmer'sactivities, from production to marketing. According to Russell(1981), the range is a rather daunting one with biological,economic, political and sociological facets. To Mbithi (1973)and Mchombi (1981) the range of the farmer's informationneed is wide. Williams (1978) has observed that sincemodernizing agriculture is almost as complex as the scientificworld itself, the farmer's information needs are indeeddiverse and complex. Lawani (1981) is of the view thatagriculture is a complex industry and that the system ofproduction, transport, storage, marketing and processing forfood and fibre requires a large variety of pieces ofinformation.

The farmer's information needs thus cover a wide varietyof the farmer's activities. His information requirements mustspan such areas as climate, soil, traditional planting andtending practices. Other areas of his information needs areavailability of requisites such as improved seeds, fertilizer,farm implements and pest control. The rural non-literatefarmer also needs to be informed in the areas of harvesting,storage, transportation and marketing facilities and theattendant problems peculiar to his immediate environment.Yet other areas of his information requirements are fishingpractices, live-stock production and preservation as well asexploitation and conservation of forest resources. Above all,the non-literate farmer requires latest information onresearch findings in the various areas of his farmingactivities.

Disseminating Agricultural Information

There is very little doubt about the availability in Nigeriatoday of a wealth of scientifically-based information forimproved agricultural production. Universities, researchinstitutes and schools of agriculture have developed highyielding, quick maturing and pest resistant varieties. They

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also can determine, perhaps to the minutest detail, othertechnological inputs necessary for maximum yield from eachcrop variety. However, there appears to be something defectivein the method of disseminating this information, hence thecurrent low patronage of recommended improved agriculturalpractices.

Communicating with the non-literate farmer must bepredicated on a thorough appraisal of the informationenvironment and the information needs of the rural non-literate farmer. Determining the farmer's information needsmust be a shared responsibility between the farmer himselfand the communicator or extension agent. While theextension agent or communicator acts as the purveyor ofspecialized, technological information for improvedagricultural production, the farmer should be entrusted withthe responsibility of feeding the researcher through thecommunicator or extension agent with information on hisproblems, successes and failures in his day-to-day farmingactivities. Since he is in a vantage position to assess andcompare his traditional and modern farming practices as wellas his output from each, he is no doubt a better informer inthese aspects. What we are suggesting here, therefore, is thatthe task of determining the information needs of the ruralnon-literate farmer and consequent information content ofour communication should not be seen as our responsibilityalone. The communication flow must be multi-directional.Feeling the pulse of the non-literate farmer for hisinformation needs may serve as a potent force for breakingdown his resistance to adoption.

An appreciation of the media environment of the ruralnon-literate farmer and information flow within thatenvironment is thus vital not only meaningfulcommunication with him but also for getting him to adopt thenew practices being recommended. The rural community isrich in traditional channels of communication if only thecommunicator is enter-prising enough to want to exploit therich communication resources of this environment.

Omu (1978) categorizes the agencies for communicatinginformation in traditional Nigerian society into two groups -the oral communication or information transference media,and the formal transference media. However, for the purposeof this paper, we are interested in Omu's informal

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transference media which include family visiting, marriageand circumcision feasts, town and village festivals, publictrials, quarrels, and disputes. Imrana Yazidu (1973) in his"Study of Radio as a means of Communicating AgriculturalInformation to farmers in Northerns States of Nigeria", alsoidentifies traditional meetings such as wedding, naming andfuneral ceremonies, harvest, markets and visiting as potentchannels of communicating with the preponderantlyIlliterate farmers of northern Nigeria.

Basu (1969), in a study of the "Relationship of FarmersCharacteristics to the Adoption of Recommended FarmPractices In four villages of the Western State of Nigeria -Tede,Irawo, Offikl, Ago-Amodu: argues that the introduction of newfarming ideas is a type of technological change whoseadoption is highly influenced by the social and culturalconditions of rural life. He identifies, among others, visitingfriends and participation in formal village organizations assources of communication among rural farmers. In the samevein, (Aboyade, 1981) has identified town-criers, talkingdrums, market places, village squares, schools, churches andmosques as avenues for Information dissemination in ruralcommunities. Also, Sobowale and Sogbanmu (1984) haveacknowledged the strong influence of friends and relations ininnovation adoption among rural fishermen in Lagos, State,Nigeria, particularly after initial awareness had been cratedby the mass media.

Among the Yoruba of Nigeria, some traditional festivalsand ceremonies can be instructive in that they signal thetimes of planting or harvesting crops and may even give hintson how the crops are to be tended. Aboyade cites the exampleof 'Ifa1 corpus from which a lot of information about thecharacteristics of various plants, animals, birds and otherliving and non-living things can be derived. Quoting WandeAbimbola, she describes the conditions favourable to thegrowth of the cotton plant as affirmed in some verses of the'Ifa' corpus as "gentle rainfall in the early stages of its growth,plenty of dewdrops when it is forming its seeds, and sunnyweather when its buds are opening up as cotton wool". Also,the New Yam Festival (Achebe, 1971) among the Igbo ofNigeria signifies that yams are ripe for harvesting.

During these festivals and ceremonies, people of all agegroups from far and near, community leaders, chiefs, priests

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and other acknowledged leaders of the people mingle freely toshare the unique experience each festival brings. Suchmoment offer ample opportunities for exchange ofagricultural information as people discuss freely their socialand occupational problems, failures and successes in anatmosphere, which makes them more receptive tocommunication that touches on the welfare of thecommunity.

Agricultural Communication and the Extension Agent

The extension worker is a change agent, a liaison officeruniquely placed in the intricate network of agriculturalcommunication; he is the 'go-between', serving to link what(Russell, 1981) calls the research network and the farmernetwork. Iniodu (1985) defines the role of the extension agentas one of extending knowledge from formal agriculturaleducation institutions to farming communities; of carryingnew technologies developed by agricultural scientists tofarmers in the field and of relating back to the scientists thosefield problems that require further investigations andaddition information. The extension personnel, Inioduargues, must understand the philosophy of his service whichembodies the development of the farms themselves to theextent that they can adequately identify their problems,design their own plans of action, make their own decisionsand carry out their plans according to the research results andmodern technology information disseminated to them by theextension field staff.

The extension agent's task is a rather arduous one, and so,for success, he need not only be able to understand andinterpret scientific or technological agricultural informationbut he also needs to be a skilled communicator, able toestablish personal relationships with both the farmer and theresearcher. Empathy with the farmer is crucial if theextension agent is not only to inform but also to effect attitudechange in the farmer.

The extension agent needs to be able to assemble, collateand synthesize information from diverse research sourcesand the farmer's field results as well as disseminate theinformation by establishing a two- way communicationchannel so that there is a steady flow of scientifically-based

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agricultural information from researchers through him to thefarmer while he conveys back to the researcher the farmer'ssuccess stories and queries on the recommended farmpractices. To effect adoption, which is his ultimate goal, theextension agent may need to seek, influence and utilizeopinion leaders within the community.

The Role of Opinion Leadens

Occasionally, because of the heterophilous characteristicof the change agent, he might need to employ the services ofopinion leaders as intermediaries to reach and positivelyinfluence the rural non-literate farmer. Opinion leaders arethose to whom others turn for advice. In Nigerian ruralcommunities, they are the 'Sarking Norma1, the 'Baale',leaders of thought, teachers, priests, chiefs, and othercommunity leaders whose views are respected. Such peopleshould be persuaded to adopt the new practices as theirexample is likely to serve as a catalyst for attitude change andadoption of new practices.

Mass Media and Agricultural Communicationwith the Non-Literate Farmer

Agricultural extension service in Nigeria, and indeed inmost developing countries, not only suffers from lack ofadequately qualified agricultural extension personnel but it isalso terribly ill-equipped to meet the challenges of itsoperations. This factor has forced most governments in theless developed countries to turn to the mass media to do thetrick of reaching thousands or even millions of farmers In aswoop. The mass media generally have been acclaimed theworld over as a great multiplier of ideas (Schramm, 1964).The transistorized radio, particularly because of its relativecheapness and ubiquity has been seen as the best means ofreaching a far-flung (Moemeka, 1981) illiterate populationsince radio transcends the barrier of illiteracy. However,research findings on diffusion of Innovation (Berelson andMcPhee, 1954; Katz and Lazarfeld, 1955; Rogers and Svenning,1969; Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971; Sobowale and Sogbanmu,1984) have shown that while the mass me#dia are good increating initial awareness, they are poor In influencing people

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for attitude change. Thus, McCroskey et al (1971) have arguedthat if we wish to influence large numbers of people, we mustbe able to influence the interpersonal communication inwhich they are involved.

Radio as a popular medium among rural people shouldtherefore be used in creating initial awareness as well as infeeding information into discussion forums. This activefarmer-involvement is crucial for success in the Nigeriansituation where, as (Nwuneli, 1984) has observed, the ruralradio audience is still largely an eavesdropping audience andwhere the mass media suffer from urban-centrality syndrome(Soola, 1984). What we are suggesting therefore are wellorganized, well co-ordinated 'radio rural forums' or 'radiofarm forums' which have been tried with varying degrees ofsuccess in Canada, Colombia, Ghana, India, Senegal etc. Thissystem provides a two-way communication an exchangeprocess which is imperative for adoption of innovations.

The Role of the library

The library is increasingly coming into focus as a potentsource of information for the rural non-literate farmer.However, because the librarian is here dealing with apreponderantly illiterate population, he needs to adopt anunorthodox method of acquiring, organizing anddisseminating his information. The documentalist, workingin concert with the extension agent, can collate, interpret,repackage and document scientific and technologicalagricultural information relevant to the needs of particularcommunities. The documentation may profile the ruralmilieu, its history, social life and traditional festivals. Therural non-literate farmer must be an active participant in thisprocess, relating his experiences, problems and askingquestions on his day-to-day activities as well as on how toimprove the harsh conditions of daily living. Theinformation so jointly gathered can be illustrated in pictorialpamphlets, posters or stored in audio cassettes for playbackwhen and where necessary.

Audio Tapes

Audio tapes constitute an invaluable asset incommunicating agricultural information to the non-literate

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