Abstract:

The potential A
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OPINION LEADERSHIP IN TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION
AMONG RURAL MEN AND WOMEN IN MUKONO DISTRICT,
The main objective of the study was to explore the occurrence and importance of
opinion leadership among both male and female farmers in farming. This was achieved
through a research study which involved a survey of households in three villages of
Buligobe, Kapeke and Luwunga in Mukono district of Uganda. Interviews were
importance of opinion leaders in the
informal interpersonal
orvttsC
communication is emphasised because of their unique capacity to pass flow of
information on innovations to the farmers. The gender dimension was included to
ascertain if there are gender differences in opinion leadership in farming. The study was
based on the premise that peasant farmers in Uganda, particularly the women farmers
do not have adequate access to extension services due to amongst others, the wide
change agent to client ratio. In view of the problems faced by the farmers and the
opportunities offered by opinion leaders the importance of opinion leadership justified
investigation.
The main objective of the study was to explore the occurrence and importance of
opinion leadership among both male and female farmers in farming. This was achieved
through a research study which involved a survey of households in three villages of
Buligobe, Kapeke and Luwunga in Mukono district of Uganda. Interviews were conducted with the assistance of extension agents from the Department of Agriculture
of Mukono district.
The occurrence and importance of opinion leaders, also referred to as fellow farmers,
as a source of information among the rural farmers was deduced through different
types of assessments. The first being by rank order assessment which was used to
compare the different sources of information that are used by the farmers. This method
was extended further to investigate the differences in: information source rating within
the different farming enterprises, rating by the different genders and ranking in the
villages. The second method of assessment involved comparing the frequency of use of
the three most important information sources that were identified namely the fellow
farmers, radio and extensions agents for importance. In the subsequent investigations,
further emphasis was placed in establishing the following important aspects related to
opinion leadership, which are: the reliability of opinion leader identification, the scope
opinion leader influence and the important characteristics of the opinion leaders.
The study has shown that the fellow farmer is relatively more important than the radio
and extension agents. The pattern of ranking the information sources by the male and
female farmer is similar, the only difference is that the female farmers rated the fellow
farmers relatively more important than the male farmers. The radio was found to be
more important than the fellow farmers in terms of frequency of usage, a factor which
was attributed to the routine availability of the weekly farmer's programs broadcast
over the radio. The male farmers were found to make more frequent use of all the
information source than the female farmers.
The results also show a wide spread existence and use of opinion leaders among both
males and females in the study area. These opinion leaders were found to be a clearly
identifiable individuals who have not been confused with specialists. Males were found
to feature more prominently than females as opinion leaders and they were found to
consult opinion leaders more frequently than the female farmers. It was also found that
the common tendency among the farmers is to consult an opinion leaders on one
enterprise. The respondents were found to more frequently consult the opinion leaders
who were perceived to be prominent, friendly, very accessible and those who livewithin close proximity to the farmers. Kinship relation was also found to be an
important determinant for more frequent consultation. Both male and female farmers
were found to consult the opinion leaders more frequently in enterprises that are
important to them. The farmers in the study area were found to get information
through opinion leaders who are not similar to them.
The fact that opinion leaders play such important roles in various agricultural
enterprises has important implications for extension program planning and future
research. Recognition of this role and formulation of strategies to put it in good use is
recommended. It is suggested that this can be achieved by designing integrated
communication strategies focused on the opinion leaders, the radio and extension
agents and it is suggested that commensurate extension capacity building is necessary
to support an opinion leader led extension strategy. Further recommendations were
made to extend the current research to other areas of Uganda. Some areas for further
research in opinion leadership were suggested.