Analysis of Agricultural Extension Service Agents Information Sources and Sorghum Production in Bondo Sub County, Kenya

Developing countries are facing major challenges today with regard to food security because of changes in land use, coupled with population pressure and adverse weather conditions. Kenya government has responded to this by ensuring that farmers are given relevant information on farming through various sources such as availing information from research institutions, formal training, agricultural extension service agents, and media services through television and radio and from friends, relatives and neighbours. The farmers’ agricultural knowledge determines the level of farm performance. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of extension service agents information source on sorghum production in Bondo Sub–County. The study used cross sectional survey design. The study used a target population of 37,296 farmers and a sample size of 380 farmers determined by Yaro Yamane formula (1967). Stratified random sampling was used. Qualitative data was analyzed through content analysis while quantitative data was analyzed by both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Pearson (r) Regression Analysis used to determine the effect of agricultural information sources on sorghum production aided by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 23) and Excel. Results were then presented in tabular form. The study findings show that the extension service information sources (β=.728, F=9.214, R² = 0.746, Sig=0.003 at α=0.05) have significant influence on sorghum production. The study therefore concludes that enhancing extension service agents information sources in increasing the sorghum production in terms of farmers output and subsequently farmers potential income in Bondo Sub County. The study recommends that policy makers in sorghum farming should lay more emphasis in enhancing integrated agricultural information sources in as much as enhancing the agricultural extension service agents’ information sources to increase in sorghum production.