Perceived Effects Of Information Communication Technology Among Researchers, Extension Agents And Farmers In Nigeria

Abstract

The agricultural macro production system consists of researchers, extension agents or sometimes described as technology transfer workers, and the farmers. This description implies that there is need for proper coordination and linkage among them and the linking commodity is information. The breakthrough in the information communication technology reveals the digital face of farming and thus making the practice of farming to be precision agriculture. In this way the use of sensors, digital application controllers, communication links, the global positioning system, computers and innovative software solutions to automatically match agricultural inputs and practices to variable local conditions within a
field. A triangulation approach was used to determine the perceived effects of Information Communication Technology among researchers, extension agents and farmers in Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the different sets of respondents and information elicited through a structured questionnaire based on the existing level of
awareness of Information Communication Technology tools. The result shows that the use of Information Communication Technology was perceived to be of positive effect. This is based on the fact that digital tools could make farming more productive and environmentally
benign. However the constraints to the realization of this potential lie in the infrastructure availability, manpower development and the policy frame work for the implementatio.