ASSESSMENT OF FARMERS USAGE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN PAIKORO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was conducted in Paiko local government area of Niger State, Nigeria, with the objective of assessing farmers’ usage and effectiveness of information and communication technologies and also to determine respondent’s level of use of new information and communication technologies. Data were obtained through the use of questionnaire administered on 60 farmers that were randomly selected and analysed using descriptive statistics, 3- point likert scale and logit regression. The study revealed that an overwhelming majority (81.7%) of the respondent were males with an average age of 43years with formal education. Farm size and number of extension visits were the factors that influenced the use of ICT. While increase in the farm size lead to decrease in the odds of ICT usage, increase in extension visit on the other hand led to increase in the odds of ICT usage. Based on the findings of the study, it is therefore recommended that ICT facilities and training should be channeled more to the large scale farmers since they have a higher likelihood of using them.