Information use in rural development

Abstract

Usually, development agencies operating in rural communities are concerned with introducing products, methods or procedures that can help to improve people's lives. Naturally, these projects cannot be introduced without information about the topic concerned. An investigation was done on how such information is transferred to rural communities by making use of a training programme in maize production for small-scale farmers. The results of this investigation indicated that people originating from an oral culture respond positively to a development project based on their particular way of information use. It is argued that development projects can be made more meaningful by taking into consideration the target group's information use, or their information behaviour, when designing and implementing such projects.