Table 2 Assessing the nature of social interactions in cassava Farmers’ network
Farmers’ interactions in their social network | Frequency | Usefulness | Effectiveness | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mean score | Mean rank | Mean score | Mean rank | Mean score | Mean rank | |
Farmer’s interaction with the main promoter of innovations (RTIMP outfit) | 6.48 | 5.55 | 6.17 | 5.28 | 6.13 | 5.38 |
Farmer’s interaction with other technical change agents (researchers, Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs), Non-governmental Organization (NGOs)) | 6.05 | 5.05 | 5.94 | 5.02 | 5.98 | 5.08 |
Farmer’s interaction with other market change agents (input sellers, buyers, transporters) | 5.71 | 4.48 | 5.57 | 4.48 | 5.57 | 4.48 |
Farmer’s interaction with other farmers (neighbours, relatives) | 5.75 | 4.54 | 5.69 | 4.51 | 5.57 | 4.39 |
Farmer’s participation in organizational meetings | 5.66 | 4.31 | 5.82 | 4.64 | 5.57 | 4.23 |
Access to RTIMP related information from the media | 5.45 | 4.11 | 5.62 | 4.38 | 5.43 | 4.42 |
Farmer’s conversation with other actors on technological issues | 5.53 | 4.20 | 5.24 | 3.93 | 5.79 | 4.20 |
Farmer’s conversation with other actors on market issues | 5.17 | 3.77 | 5.13 | 3.76 | 5.18 | 3.82 |
Degree of trust of information obtain through social interaction | Mean score | Mean rank |
|---|---|---|
Degree of farmer’s confidence in externally provided technical information | 6.21 | 1.51 |
Degree of farmer’s confidence in externally provided market information | 6.16 | 1.49 |
Test of degree of agreement in farmers’ ranking using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance | |
|---|---|
Social interaction measure | Kendall’s W |
Frequency of social interaction | 0.55** |
Usefulness of social interaction | 0.45** |
Effectiveness of social interaction | 0.44** |
Degree of trust of information obtain through social interaction | 0.20** |