Study On The Problems And Issues Of Agricultural Information Service In Hebei Province And Their Countermeasures

Since the late 1990s, important changes in Hebei province agricultural and rural economy indicated that Hebei province's agricultural development had come into the new stage, in which to adjust agricultural structure, to raise agricultural benefits and farmer's incomes, to improve rural environment, implement sustainable agricultural and rural development are leading tasks. In this new stage, farmers' information needs also change so that how to deliver agricultural science & technology information to farmers according to their demands and wants and also according to own needs of agricultural economic development is an urgent problem that should be solved immediately.The author applied quantitative and qualitative analyses into the study using the following theories: "Theory of Agricultural Innovation Diffusion, Hierarchy of Needs Theory, Agricultural Knowledge and Information System Theory, and Economic Characteristics of Information." Firstly, the author used questionnaire to acquire agricultural information needs and wants of 117 farmers who come from villages covering three different geographical settings such as mountainous, plain and sub-urban areas and 163 village cadres who come from 11 different districts in the entire province of Hebei. Secondly, another questionnaire is used to know information supply from 208 service personnel who come from local agricultural information service departments in 9 different counties of the province. EXCEL is used in grouping and processing of survey data.Using comparative analysis of different results the following conclusions are arrived: the major source of information that the farmers utilize is agricultural extension department, but the degree of farmer's satisfaction to the information service it provides is low. The means of information delivery which farmer prefer in order of importance are: TV, scientific journals and newspapers, then discs. The main constraints of farmer in getting information in order of importance are fear of false information, lack of appropriate information and shortage of places for acquiring information and the time delay in providing information. The most required or needed information is agri-technology information which mainly include plant pest and diseases prevention and control, goodcrop variety, field management technology and breeding technology followed by the demand of market and lastly agricultural policy. The most difficult obstacle in building village level agricultural information service station is the shortage of capital. The low capability of supplying information is influenced by shortage of capital investment, a single service organization, low level of education of service panel and as well as poor working conditions. Based on the above analysis, some suggestions are put forward such as: enhancing the investment for agricultural information service building; resolving the balance of supply and demand about village level information service; improving the content of information in the major means of information delivery such as TV, science journals, discs, etc.; increasing capability of agricultural information panel; renewing the concept of agricultural extension and enlarging the area of service; enhancing the cooperation between the science institution (i.e. university and sicience academy) and the local government, extension departments and professional associations of farmers.