DETERMINANTS OF YAM FARMERS’ ACCESS TO INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN AGRICULTURAL SERVICES DELIVERY AND PRODUCTION IN DELTA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the determinants of yam farmers’ access to ICT tools in agricultural services delivery and production in Delta State, Nigeria. It identifies the agricultural services and the ICT tools available to yam farmers, determined the roles of ICT tools in improving yam farmers’ access to agricultural services and examined the determinants of yam farmers’ access to ICT tools, among others. The sample size was 176 respondents made up of 88 farmer adopters and 88 non-adopters of ICT tools in yam production. Data was analyzed with the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that services on: transportation/distribution of farm products (93.18%), marketing (92.05%), crop production (87.50%), advisory (80.68%), farm management (71.59%) and finance (70.46%) were services offered to the farmers by the extension agents. Common available ICT tools to the farmers are mobile phones (95.45%), television (85.23%) and radio (80.68%). Farm size (mean = 3.42), level of farm income (mean = 3.41), farmers educational level (mean = 3.12) and area where farmers stay (mean = 2.98), were found to be major determinants of farmers access to ICT tools. Farmers’ high level of access to ICT tools have played significant roles in improving their access to agricultural services, production and farm income. There was significant difference in farm income (N105,113.63) in favour of adopters over non-adopters of ICT tools in yam production. The study thus recommended that government should make the ICT tools more available to the farmers so that their income can be boosted.