ASSESSMENT OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES BY SMALL-SCALE FARMERS IN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERITORY (FCT), ABUJA, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess factors that influenced the use of ICT by small-scale farmers in FCT Abuja. Three-stage sampling procedure was adopted to select 80 small-scale farmers in which structured questionnaire was administered on to collect primary data. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and logit regression model. The results revealed that most (90.0%) of the farmers were married and 55.0% had just primary school education. About 32.5% of respondents were within age range of 31–40 years with mean age of 34 years. Furthermore, 90.0% of the farmers had household size of 6–10 people with a mean of 7 people, while 57.5% of them had 6–10 years of farming experience with mean of 7.5 years. Half (50.0%) of respondents had farm size of 1.1–2.0 hectares with mean of 1.73 hectares, while 52.5% of the farmers had annual income between ₦41,000-₦60,000. Majority (87.5%) of the respondents were into maize production and about 37.5% of them use mobile phone. Result of logit regression revealed marital status and educational level of the farmers had positive and significant (P<0.1) relationship with ICT use, household size had a positive and significant (P<0.01) influence on ICT use, while credit access and extension contact had positive and significant (P<0.05) influence on ICT use. Constraints identified include poverty among the farmers (97.5%), inadequate capacity and affordability, as well as poor access to ICT infrastructure (96.3%) ranked 1st and 2nd, respectively. ICT use was found to be influenced by socio-economic factors of the respondents. It is therefore recommended that, small-scale farmers should be sensitized and encouraged by extension agents to key into pro-poor programmes that will make them have access to ICT tools.