Assessment of The Awareness and Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) among Small Scale Farmers in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study assessed the awareness and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) among small scale farmers in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria. Seventy-five (75) farmers were sampled and interviewed using the random sampling technique. The results showed that majority of the farmers (74.6%) were between (31-60) years of age. Most of the respondents (80%) were males and (80%) of them are educated. The result showed that all the respondents are aware of the use of Radio and Television as a means of communicating agricultural information. Based on usage of ICTs, Radio recorded the highest usage (40%) followed by mobile phone (33.3%), print Media (10.0%), Television (8.0%) and lastly computer/internet (5.3%). The result also indicated that lack of constant power supply (with mean score of (3.89). High cost of ICTs (with mean score of 3.72), complexity of ICTS (With mean score of 3.64), and lack of credit and loan to obtain ICTS (with mean score of 3.56) were the major constraints to ICTs utilization by small scale farmers in the study area. It was therefore recommended that extension agents should encourage farmers on the use of the various ICT devices. Government should provide infrastructures like electricity and internet services in the rural areas to enable farmers make use of some necessary ICT devices. Government should also partner with relevant non-governmental organizations in order to provide the ICTs devices at subsidized and affordable rate to farmers.