Assessment of Preference of Information and Communication Technologies in Training and Communicating Crop Farmers by Village Extension Agents of Ogun and Oyo States, Nigeria
The use of ICTs among the agricultural stakeholders is a prevalent phenomenon across the globe, which has significantly encouraged the information sharing on improved agricultural production. ICTs bridges the communication gap between the rural farmers and VEAs at least cost and lesser time. The study therefore assessed the ICTs preference in training and communicating crop farmers by VEAs. The study described the socio-economic characteristics of the VEAs in both States; identified and determined the frequency of use of the ICTs in training and communicating to farmers by the VEAs; and level of preference of ICTs for training and communicating farmers by the VEAs. The study revealed that more than half (57.5%) of the EAs in the selected States were between age of 31-40years and majority (90.6%) were males and literate with different educational qualifications and years of working experience in extension service. The study further revealed GSM-phone (=2.78 -1st), CD/DVD player (=2.35 – 2nd) and CD-ROM (=2.33 – 3rd) as ICTs that had highest mean values on basis of frequency of use; GSM-phone (=1.98 – 1st) and radio (=1.68 – 2nd) were also ranked first and second on the basis of most preferred ICTs in training and communicating farmers; age (0.514**), sex (0.432**), educational qualification (0.403**) and years of working experience (0.426**) of the EAs exhibited a significant relationship with their preference for ICTs in training and communicating farmers. The study therefore recommends the need to encourage the utilization of different ICTs that are considered to be appropriate for extension training and communication among the VEAs and the need for logistic support in form of acquisition of these ICT tools and provision of training on the application of different ICTs for extension services among the VEAs of the selected States
