D. U OKOEDO-OKOJIE

The study was conducted in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria, to assess information source utilization among arable crop farmers in the study area. The research specifically aimed to describe farmers' socio-economic characteristics, identify available information sources, analyze their access, preference, and frequency of use, determine motivational factors, and identify constraints to information utilization. A two-stage sampling procedure was adopted, leading to the random selection of 80 respondents. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages, and mean scores, while multiple linear regression was used to test the hypotheses. Findings on socio-economic characteristics revealed that the respondents were predominantly male (54.9%), married (73.2%), with a mean age of 45 years and an average of 15 years of farming experience. A majority (80.4%) had at least a primary education, and most were small-scale farmers with an average farm size of 2.02 hectares. The most utilized information sources were fellow farmers (97.6%), cooperative associations (95.1%), and radio (86.6%). A key finding was a disparity between access and preference; while extension agents and research institutions were highly preferred, access to them was low. The major constraints to information utilization were the high cost of modern technologies (x̄=4.74), poor access to extension services (x̄=4.56), and irregular power supply (x̄=4.50). Regression analysis showed that age had a significant negative relationship with both access to and frequency of use of information sources, while farming experience positively influenced access, and farm size positively influenced the frequency of use. The study concludes that farmers rely heavily on informal networks due to constraints in accessing formal sources. It recommends strengthening formal extension services, leveraging existing informal networks like cooperatives, and improving rural infrastructure to enhance information dissemination and utilization for improved agricultural productivity