Exploring Farmers' Information Seeking Behavior from the Perspectives of Information Channels

• Main Authors: Yu-Wei Chang, Jhih-Ling Shao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National Taiwan University 2017-12-01
• Series: Journal of Library and Information Studies
• Subjects: farmer; information source; information seeking behavior; agricultural information dissemination
• Online Access: https://jlis.lis.ntu.edu.tw/files/journal/j45-4.pdf

This study used an in-depth interview and information horizon maps to investigate information seeking behavior of 15 farmers in Central Taiwan. The results show that increased work roles led to more categories of information needed by farmers. Six types of information sources were used by farmers to obtain agricultural information. Interpersonal network was the most preferred information source by farmers. Especially, most farmers contacted other farmers first. Requesting agricultural organizations and farmer groups was the second preferred information source, followed by searching the Internet. Few farmers obtained information from libraries. Several factors affected farmers to select information sources. In addition, barriers to seeking agricultural information faced by farmers were identified. To strengthen the effect of agricultural information dissemination, some suggestions were made. Government agencies related to agriculture should focus the greatest influence of interpersonal network on disseminating agriculture information and improve the communication between agricultural extension agents and farmers. The content and time of agricultural courses were set based on farmers’ needs. Improving farmers’ information literacy is an essential issue as well. (Article content in Chinese with English extended abstract)