Rural Livestock Farmers Perception of the Role of Information and Communication Technology Tools in Livestock Production, Management and Improvement in Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated rural livestock farmers’ perception of the roles of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in livestock production, management and improvement in Imo State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to identify the various information and communication technology devices used by respondents in the study area, identify the roles of ICT tools in livestock production, management and improvement. Data were collected through questionnaire distributed to 150 ICT-User rural livestock farmers randomly selected from a list of 1500 livestock farmers in Imo State, Nigeria. Percentages, presented in frequency distribution tables, mean score were used to analyze the data. Results showed that the ICT tools available to the rural livestock farmers include mobile phones (91.3%), radio (56.6%), television (61.3%) and the internet (60%). With an acceptable mean score of 2.50, ICT tools play vital roles in livestock production, management improvement. Such roles includes reduced cost of production (M=2.80), facilitate livestock health care (M=3.31), track whereabout of animals (M=2.90), provision of technical advice (M=3.10), information on feeds/feeding (M=2.80), record keeping (M=2.80), forecast incidence of diseases (M=3.41), among other roles. The above underscores the importance of information in animal agriculture and the business of farming in general.