Abstract
The current study investigated the extent to which agricultural researchers and extension workers were aware of Web 2.0 technologies and put them into practice in their daily work. The study involved 107 respondents in the first phase and 148 in the second phase. Respondents were from agricultural research and training institutions as well as agricultural extension departments from selected districts across the country. Structured questionnaires were administered to selected respondents. Findings show that 43.9% of the respondents were aware of Web 2.0 while 56.1% knew nothing about this concept. Facebook and Wikipedia were found to be the most used Web 2.0 tools by many respondents while Delicious, Pbworks, Picasa and Digg were identified as among the less commonly used tools by majority of the respondents. The study recommends the need for providing appropriate Web 2.0 training packages to agricultural extension workers, researchers, trainers and other stakeholders in order to enhance knowledge sharing among them for improved agricultural productivity in the country.
Highlights
Agriculture is regarded as the engine of development in most developing countries
Scholars (Chisenga, Entsua-Mensah, & Sam, 2007; Kalusopa, 2005; Ozowa, 1995) mention that agricultural information services needed by actors in the agricultural sector may include: agricultural innovations and developments; agricultural financial and marketing services; and extension services
This shows the potential these people have for developing new innovations and technologies needed for transforming the agricultural sector and rural livelihoods in Tanzania
Summary
Agriculture is regarded as the engine of development in most developing countries. The sector is known to employ majority of citizens, feed nations, and provide source of foreign currency. When actors in the sector have adequate access to knowledge and information services, they usually have a potential to make rational decisions regarding agricultural production and post-harvest activities. Respondents were asked on the usefulness of the tools for creation and sharing of agricultural knowledge. Findings show different perceptions on the usefulness of Web 2.0 tools for agricultural knowledge creation and sharing. Among the four tools covered, the majority (70.3%) perceived Wikis to be very useful tools for agricultural knowledge creation and sharing. Others (63.5%) perceived macro and micro blogs to be very useful for the purpose followed by 60.1% and 54% who mentioned online reference management tools and Google Drive to be very useful for knowledge management respectively (see Table 7 for details). The perceptions were much influenced by the perceived ease of use and perceived appropriateness of the tools in creation and sharing agricultural knowledge
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