CHAPTER ONE
1.0INTRODUCTION
1.1BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Agriculture is an important economic sector, since it provides income and food for a large segment of the population in developing countries. It plays a key role in the socio-economic development of many developing countries. For Agriculture to play these key roles successfully, farmers need to be properly informed in order to take rational decisions with respect to the adoption of improved agricultural technologies.
According to FAO (2000), much information is unavailable or inaccessible particularly to poor farmers, many practical lessons have been learnt but not shared and there are few opportunities for dialogue to enable concerns to be resolved. The agricultural sector needs technologies that can make information available and easily accessible to farmers and agricultural professionals. Hence, the accessibility to information which is made readily available by ICTs has helped in molding our altitudes towards life as there is more information about certain aspects of life including the agricultural sector (Spore, 2004).
The term Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) refer to hardware, software, networks and media for collection, storage, processing, and transmission in the formats of voice, data, text, and images (World Bank ICT Glossary Guide). As such, the nature of ICTs is diverse ranging from telephones, radios, and television to more technologies such as internet technologies, mobile telephony, computers and databases. This diversity means that they can be used by people with varying degrees of skills, although the current trends towards sophisticated applications are more and more demanding on the end users. The primary purpose of ICTs is to provide an enabling environment for the generation of ideas, their dissemination and use. Through ICTs, the diffusion and sharing of knowledge is enabled through open access to information and better coordination of knowledge. ICT facilitates the creation of networks locally, regionally and globally.
Farmers require information to link various inputs at reasonable prices and also link output markets. (Adekunle et al 2004). A combination of the two may increase farmer’s income. (Arokoyo, 2005) noted that a strong extension linkage complimented by flawless information flow enhanced by the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) will significantly boost agricultural production and improve rural methods in developing countries. The role of ICT is also recognized in millennium development goal no. 8 (MDG 8), which emphasizes the benefits of new technologies especially information and communication technologies in the fight against poverty. They are also required to make the world a global village.
Agricultural professionals are scientists, researchers and extension worker who have been trained in various disciplines in agriculture and rural development. They play the critical role of linking technology sources to technology end users, that is, the farmers. This definition goes beyond the traditional role of extension workers to include assessment and articulation of farmers’ technology needs, research and development of new technology testing and evaluation of new technology and transferring it to farmers. In particular, agricultural professionals have a crucial role to play in bridging the technology gap that exists between the existing scientific knowledge base and information and knowledge in the hands of farmers. The institutions that engage the personnel provide facilities which could enhance the performance of their duties as research and extension personnel.