Effectiveness of use of information and communication technologies (icts) by extension agents and arable crop farmers in ido loal government area, oyo state, nigeria

Abstract

The study was undertaken to ascertain effectiveness of use of ICTs by extension agents and arable crop farmers in Ido local government area Oyo State. Multiple stage sampling procedure was used to select 105 respondents for the study. Data were collected from the respondents through the use of structured questionnaire.. Descriptive statistics such as; mean, frequency table, and percentage were used to analysed data while inferential statistical tools such as Chi-square and Pearson Product Moment correlation (PPMC) were used to tested the hypotheses of the study. The result of the study showed that majority of the respondents were in the age bracket of 31-40 years, which could be categorized as adults, and more of them were males, while majority of them were married. Result revealed the level of ICTs used by extension agents for arable crop farmers were radio (97.1%), mobile phone (92.4%) and internet (81.9%).The result further shows major constraints militating the effectiveness of use of ICTs were network problem in the study area. There is no significant relationship between constraint and level of ICTs used by the arable crops farmer in the study area. It is therefore recommended that government should ensure that farmers should have access to and use ICTs by putting policies in place to ensure all rural area have access to ICTs tools ,also  awareness on the use of ICTs should be intensify among arable crop farmers.