Constraints to Access and Utilization of Meteorological Services in Delta State, Nigeria.

Climate change effect on agricultural productivity is very glaring. There is an advocacy for arable crops farmers to take advantage of the Nigeria meteorological services (NIMET) as part of adaptation strategies against climate change. Having an insight into the constraints to access and utilization agrometeorological services is worthwhile for agricultural extension programme planning. This study evaluated assessed the constraint to access and utilization of agro-meteorological service among arable crop farmers in Delta State Nigeria. The agro-meteorological services that were most made available to them ranged from daily weather forecast to seasonal weather condition. The farmers mostly accessed and utilized daily weather forecast, seasonal rainfall prediction, information on crop stages performance and general weather condition. However, untimely release and transmission of the needed information was the major constraint to utilization of agro-meteorological services. The farmers’ socioeconomic attributes such as level of formal education, household size, farm size, extension contact and membership of farmers’ association influenced the utilization of agro-meteorological services. It is concluded that the level of access to and utilization of agro-meteorological services is low as a result of the constraints experienced by the farmers. It was recommended that agrometeorological services information need to be disseminated timely and the information be simplified before dissemination to farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]