The Role of National Farmers Helps Line in Agricultural Information Dissemination Among Crop Farmers in Nigeria: A Case Study of Farmers Help Line Centre, NAERLS ABU Zaria

The study examined the role of national farmers helpline in agricultural information dissemination among crop farmers in Nigeria, with the specific objectives to identify the various sources of information on agricultural practices available to the farmers and identify the various information disseminated to the farmers from the National Farmers Helpline. One Thousand farmers were randomly selected from the farmers who frequently call the Helpline Centre from the database of NAERLS across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria; to source the required information. Some of the crop farmers were contacted through phone calls, SMS, and social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp while some were through administration of questionnaires and face to face discussion. Data sourced were subjected to descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and percentage for analysis and were presented in tables and charts. The findings reveal that the Farmers Help Line Centre, NEARLS supply farmers around the country with all the necessary information on cultural practices, access to improved seed varieties, fertilizer and application, pest and disease management practices, weed management practices, marketing strategies, post-harvest activities, management of farm tools and machineries and also information on Government policies on agriculture. It is recommended that stakeholders of National Farmers Help Line ensure the sustainability of its services by including other Nigerian languages to have a larger coverage and not limiting spoken languages to only the major Nigerian languages (English, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and Nigerian pidgin); and also extend their services to West African countries and other parts of the globe at large. Key words: Agriculture, information, dissemination and crop farmers