Familiarization and application of ICTs in agricultural advisory services to farmers: the case of two rural districts of Ethiopia

Abstract

This study presents extension workers’ familiarization and application of reachable Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to provide agricultural advisory services. For the purpose of the study, 40 Agricultural Extension workers at district and rural villages were purposively selected from two districts and data collected using paper based questionnaire. The data was then analyzed using descriptive statistical tools and chi-square statistic. The study identified that the majority of (87.5%) of the respondents interviewed had moderate and low familiarization levels of available modern ICTs. The study also found that 70% of the extension workers had not using available ICTs while giving advisory services to the farmers. This might be on account of many factors such as limited access to ICT tools (computers, internet service, agricultural information CDs, and other facilities,) poor quality of internet services, limited awareness on some information and reference materials, inadequate skill to apply ICTs, weak linkage with research centers and other information sources, etc. Hence, the study concluded with the need to improve the linkage by creating available information sources and resources at the district agricultural office so that it is possible to advance ICTs access, availability, and application. Moreover, on job short-term capacity building trainings on selected ICTs tools should repeatedly be arranged to agricultural extension workers in order to enhance the application of available ICTs in agricultural advisory services.