Access and use of poultry management information in selected rural areas of Tanzania

Access and use of information facilitate the improvement of agriculture in rural areas. It is therefore important to ensure that adequate and appropriate information flows to the rural areas, and that farmers are able to utilise it. This study investigated the access and use of poultry management information in three rural districts of Tanzania, namely Iringa Rural, Morogoro Rural and Mvomero. The survey method, supplemented by methodological triangulation, was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 360 poultry farmers in the selected rural communities. Sixteen focus group discussions were conducted, in which 160 farmers participated. Twenty-two information providers were interviewed. The SPSS® software was used to analyse quantitative data, while qualitative data was analysed using content analysis. The findings indicated that poultry farmers needed information on poultry disease control, poultry protection, shelter for poultry and poultry production. There was very low identification and prioritisation of farmers’ information needs by the information providers. Farmers accessed information that had a direct impact and was deemed relevant to their farming activities. It was revealed that farmers accessed information mainly from interpersonal sources. Likewise, farmers preferred interpersonal and informal sources to formal sources of information. The extension officers were considered to be the most effective information source, followed by family, friends, and neighbours. Various factors, such as lack of awareness, unavailability of extension officers and poor infrastructure, influenced access and use of poultry management information. It was concluded that most of the information providers were not aware of the farmers’ information needs, and as a result they were not in a position to disseminate relevant information. In addition, farmers were used to an oral culture, which means that they would probably continue to depend on interpersonal sources of information, regardless of the availability of formal channels and modern sources. The study recommended several measures, including the use of multiple sources of information and delivery of information in a variety of formats, in order to accommodate various categories of farmers. The study also suggested some areas for further research. Furthermore, a model for effective dissemination of poultry management information in rural areas was proposed.Information ScienceD. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science

Agricultural Information Dissemination in Rural Areas of Developing Countries: A Proposed Model for Tanzania

This article is based on the findings of a study on access and use of poultry management information in rural Tanzania. It highlights the connection between the information system, rural farmers and information providers; and how those linkages can impact information access, usage and farmers' satisfaction. The study findings suggest that rural information dissemination in Tanzania is planned without consulting the rural farmers, resulting in limited access and underutilisation of information. Based on the study findings and drawing on the information systems success model and quadratic usage framework, a model fo r agricultural information dissemination in the context of rural Tanzania is proposed. The proposed model addresses the need to understand the target community before embarking on information dissemination. It places more emphasis on understanding farmers' community, rather than focusing on the information per se.Keywords: Agriculture, Information Dissemination, Information Models, Developing Countrie

Bibliometric Analysis of the Trends of Publications on Poverty Research in Tanzania from 1961 to 2016

Poverty research is essential in understanding the evolution of poverty, poverty trends and dynamics, policy formulation, prioritising policy interventions and informed decision making. To date, a bibliometric analysis of poverty research in Tanzania does not exist in the literature. Therefore, this bibliometric study was conducted to assess the research trends on poverty in Tanzania between 1961 and 2016. Data were collected through Harzing's Publish or Perish tool, which uses Google scholar to retrieve data from the web. A total of 825 publications were retrieved, with an average of 14.7 publications per year. As the growth rate of publications increased, the corresponding doubling time decreased. Journal articles were the dominant (23.9%) type of publication. The degree of collaboration among researchers was low, with the majority (52.8%) of publications having one author. The citation analysis reveals that over a third (35.76%) of publications were not cited. Subject categories related to poverty that had a relatively higher number of publications were governance (10.2%), agriculture (9%) and community (8.6%). Generally, the study findings provide valuable information on the characteristics of poverty research in Tanzania, which can reference future research