Assessment of Information and Communication Technologies Usage by Maize Farmers in Afijio Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to assess the information and communication technology usage by maize farmers in Afijio Local Government Area of Oyo State. The study was necessitated by persistent poor communication of new technologies from research institutes which has hampered the productivity and livelihood of farmers. The parameters assessed include socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, ICT devices used, extent of radio usage, extent of mobile phone usage, effect of radio on maize farming, effect of mobile phone on maize farming, and constraints to effective use of ICT among respondents, respectively. A multistage sampling procedure was used for sample selection with 30% random selection of 10 wards which were Aawe, Imini, and Ilora with 8 villages selected randomly, and from each of these 8 selected villages, 10 respondents were selected systematically to give rise to a total of 80 respondents as sample size. A well-structured questionnaire was used for data collection while frequencies, percentages, chi-square and pearson product moment correlation were used for data analysis. The results showed that 60.0% of the respondents were male while 40.0% were female. The findings revealed that the use of radio, television and mobile phone has increased the income and livelihood of the maize farmers due to new methods learnt from agricultural programmes, also maize farmers have been exposed to latest technology on maize production through watching of documentaries and  communicating with other maize farmers and customers. The study also showed the problems faced by the respondents were irregular power supply, high cost of ICT devices, and inadequate knowledge on technical know-how. It was therefore recommended that Maize farmers should be encouraged to access and utilize ICTs by supporting, them financially and materially by the governments and private sectors/donor agencies. Government should improve on electricity supply to the rural areas which will enable the farmers to utilize the ICT devices.

Keywords: Information Communication Technologies, Usage, Maize farmers