Effect Of Ict On Agricultural Sector In Nigeria

The past decade is characterized by major changes in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) environment in agriculture worldwide. The study is aimed at determining the influence of information communication technologies in dissemination of information to urban farmers. Primary data for the study was obtained by random sampling of 60 respondents from agricultural companies in Imo state, Abia state and FCT, Abuja. Descriptive statistics such as mean and frequency table for data analysis were used and questionnaires also administered to the farmers. Secondary data were obtained from published documents and records. From the findings, the results obtained shows that a mean score of 0.33 and standard deviation of 2.56 agree that you use statistical packages in the computer for researches. Mean score of 0.3 agree strongly that there’s a wider access to foreign journals as a result of the internet. A mean score of 0.2 agree that the problems associated with the use of ICT include poor internet connectivity, unstable power supply (0.25), high cost of using commercial cyber café (0.16) and lack of subscription to agricultural database (0.16). Based on the results, this study recommends that agricultural sectors should be well funded so that they can subscribe to outstanding databases, power supply that will meet the needs of agricultural researchers. Secondly, agricultural researchers should improve their ICT infrastructures and the larger part of its bandwidth should be given to the sector to reduce the cost of using commercial cyber cafes for the agricultural sector.