Farmers' Perception of Media Coverage of the Insecurity in Enugu State

Abstract

Despite Nigeria’s rich agricultural soils, good climatic conditions and agricultural diversity, agricultural production have continued to decline in recent times. This is majorly attributed to the heightened insecurity caused by the conflicts between herdsmen and farmers and these conflicts were either under or not covered at all by the media. This poses a major threat to Nigeria and in particular, farmers’ food security and income. The main objective of this paper is to ascertain the level of media coverage and farmers’ perception of the media coverage of insecurity in Enugu State. Data were collected from 400 farmers using a multistage sampling technique and analysed with descriptive statistics (percentages and frequency counts) and measured with a 4-point Likert-type scale rating. The study identified radio (65%) was the major source of information by the farmers and farmer/herder clashes (4.10), corruption and unethical practices (3.22), pervasive marginalisation or material inequalities (3.12) among others were sequentially ranked from 1 – 7 respectively as the causes of insecurity in the state. A total of 188(51%) farmers reported to have rarely heard about insecurity through the media. They further identified that media houses should among others be apolitical in their reportage (4.32) to curb insecurities in the state. Therefore, media practitioners should be constantly trained to have a balanced and impartial reportage and refrain from any action that portrays any selective treatment in their reportage of the security issues in the country.