Journal of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development

ISSN 2360-798X

The Impact of Education on Small-scale Farmers’ Use of ICT in Abuja, Nigeria


Abstract

Accepted 18th August, 2016

 

The study examined the impact of farmers’ level of education on the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) – radio, television, GSM phone video, agricultural books, camera and computer. A multi-stage technique was adopted for sampling while questionnaire was used for data collection. A total of 320 farmers made up of those who had primary, secondary, post-secondary and no formal school education were interviewed. Data were analyzed using two-way mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results showed that, on average, farmers with post-secondary education significantly (p < .05) used all the types ICT more than those who had at most secondary education. There was no significant difference (p > .05) between farmers who had secondary and primary education in the use of all types of ICT but farmers who had secondary education significantly (p < .05) used ICT more than those with no formal school education.  On the contrary, there was no significant difference (p > .05) between farmers who had primary school education and those with no formal school education in the use of all types of ICT. Generally, GSM phone and radio were significantly (p < .05) used more than the other ICT while the least used were camera and computer. The paper concluded that the farmers’ level of education significantly affected their use of ICT in agriculture.

 

Keywords:  Education, Information Communication Technologies, Agriculture, Small-scale farmers