Provision of Agriculture related information to rural farmers in NIgeria using ICT

抄録

Over the years, rural farmers depend on indigenous or local knowledge and information for their daily farming activities. This knowledge and information (indigenous or local) refers to the experience or skills gained through oral tradition and practices that have been passed from generation to generation. This knowledge and information needs ranges from animal and plant disease prevention, planting of treated seeds, fertilizer applications, farm machineries, proper storage of farm products, marketing techniques, co-operative and agro-cultural activities among others. This study attempts to investigate the problems rural farmers face accessing agricultural knowledge and information, it attempts to determine and evaluate the types of information available to farmers. For data collection a self-prepared questionnaire was used and the data analyzed. The findings of the study were used to design and develop an improved ICT solution that would provide farmers with agriculture related information, improve farmers knowledge on current agricultural practices, improve crop production and quality, make market decisions, get access to modern agriculture machines and limit the involvement of middlemen in agricultural trade activities.