Access to the internet for knowledge dissemination: agricultural researchers’ experience in south-western Nigeria

Abstract

Access to agricultural information is a prerequisite for agricultural development. However, information on how agricultural scientists make use of the Internet to access agricultural information is limited. This study therefore investigated access to the Internet for knowledge dissemination by agricultural researchers in south-western Nigeria. Four out of eight research institutes were randomly selected and 84 agricultural researchers were sampled for the study. Results reveal that respondents were married (88.0%), and possessed a Masters degree (79.5%). Mean age and years of work experience were 37.9 ± 5.7 and 5.5 ± 4.9 respectively. About 52 percent of the respondents indicated a low (1-4.5) access to Internet service and mean access was 4.4 ± 1.2.The most frequently used Internet tools were e-mails (100.0%), websites (100.0%) and search engines (95.2%). There was low level of Internet use for knowledge dissemination by 62.7% of the respondents. Internet use for knowledge dissemination was significantly related to Internet access (r=0.428, p<0.05). The level of Internet use for knowledge dissemination for agricultural development was low. Hence, increased access to the Internet would improve its utilisation for agricultural knowledge dissemination and development.

Key words: Internet access, knowledge dissemination, agricultural information, agricultural researchers