Technology Training Needs of Women Farmers for Enhancing Value Change in Marketing of Farm Products in Enugu State, Nigeria (original) (raw)

Technology Usage and Awareness among Smallholder Farmers in Gwagwalada Area Council, Abuja, Nigeria

The usage of ICT has recently received global attention due to its link (both in developed and developing nations) to the adoption of new farming technologies. The purpose of this study was to investigate technology usage and awareness among smallholder farmers in Gwagwalada Area Council, Abuja, Nigeria. It investigated the impact of ICT awareness and use, including radio, television, laptop computer, desktop computer, fax machine, cable television, projector, digital camera tablets, smart phone, and internet, using primary data collected from 100 respondents using structured questionnaires and a simple random sampling technique. The majority of respondents (30%) were between the ages of 36 and 45, with males accounting for 51% and females contributing for 41%. Descriptive (frequency and percentage) and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The analysis revealed that the use of modern ICTs such as mobile phones and cable television has a significant impact on the agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers, as evidenced by the respondents' rapid increase in productivity and improvement in their standard of living. Farmers' challenges, however, included high costs, lack of training, and ICT service failure. The Nigerian government should promote a liberal policy that will improve rural infrastructure and provide an enabling environment, and remote residents should have access to the internet and other mobile communication technologies, which would increase their overall use of ICT services.

Sustainable Information Exchange and Market Access: Use of Mobile Phone in the Marketing of Food Crops by Farming Households in Rural South East Nigeria

he place of information in addressing market access and participation limitation, which hinders farmer’s welfare and poverty reduction efforts in many developing countries, cannot be over-emphasized. This study therefore examined the use of mobile phone in the marketing of food crops among farming households in rural south east, Nigeria. A multi stage sampling procedures was used in the selection of location and 180 farming households sampled for this study, from which data were collected. The data were analyzed using probit regression model and Z – statistic procedure. Result of the analysis showed that knowledge of the GSM technology, quantity of crops produced, farm size, perceived need for information, distance to markets and income were major determinants of mobile phone use among the respondents. The result of the Z-test statistics also showed that among the selected socio-economic characteristics, educational attainment and age of the respondents had significant differences between users and non-users of mobile phones. The study calls for enlightenment campaign in order to sensitize the rural people on the importance of GSM technology in the transaction of their businesses, improvement in the services provided by the mobile phone service centers/ providers among other things.

Engendering Technologies of Communication: The Appropriation of Mobile Phone Technology by Rural Women in Food Production in Western Kenya Since 2007

2020

Agriculture plays a vital role in the economic growth of Global South countries, although the sector has been underperforming as compared to those in developed countries for decades. For an increase in production, there is a need to adopt improved agricultural technologies. Public sector programmes are adopting technology by providing agricultural extension services to overcome information related barriers. While such programmes have been generally criticized because of their limited scale, sustainability and impact, the rapid spread of mobile phone coverage in Global South countries provide a unique opportunity to aid the adoption of technology via information and communication technology (ICT)-based extension programs. The study delineates plausible mechanism (internet and mobile money transfers) through which mobile phones could aid the provision and adoption of agricultural information and extension services in Western Kenya. The purposive target population comprised of rural wo...

Chapter 8 Use of Mobile Phone Technology in Agricultural Marketing: The Case of Smallholder Farmers in Malawi

The mobile phone technology is an important tool to enhance farmers' access to better paying agricultural markets. The study reports the results of a household study in Mwanza, Dedza and Mzimba Districts of Malawi. The study assesses drivers of adoption of mobile phone technology for agricultural marketing by smallholder farmers. The study used regression techniques to identify drivers and extent of mobile phone use. Results show that use is positively affected by literacy, distance to local market, land size, current value of assets, crop income, and region variations but negatively influenced by access to electricity. Intensity of use is conditioned by gender, participation in agricultural projects, ownership of a mobile phone, current asset value, distance to nearest public phone services, and region variations. Asset endowment plays a critical role in enhancing adoption of mobile phone technology. Gender disparities significantly affect adoption as most women have limited access to assets. The study suggests the need to improve farmers' access to mobile phones for agricultural marketing. It recommends that government, in collaboration with mobile network operators, should reduce calling tariffs to enhance use, gender disparities in accessing assets should be minimised, and investment in supporting infrastructure must be enhanced.

Analysis of the Roles of Information and Communications Technologies in Rural Women Farmers’ Empowerment in Rivers State, Nigeria

2017

Information and Communication Technology is a potent force in the developing world for social, economic and educational transformation of individuals, agencies and institutions. This study examined the veritable roles of ICT in empowering rural women farmers in Rivers State. The specific objectives were to examine the demographic characteristics of the respondents, identify ICT devices in use by the respondents; information needs of the respondents, the roles of ICTs in rural women empowerment and constraints to the use of ICT devices by the respondents. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from respondents and oral interview where necessary. The respondents were 120 rural women farmers purposively selected from the farmers list obtained from the ADP (Agricultural Development Project) Office in the Area. The results indicate that 54.2% of the respondents are married, 57.5% with secondary education, 52.5% hold a farm size of 0.25 – 1 hectare of land. ICT devices in...

Use of ICT in Securing Marketing Information among Small Scale Farmers in Niger State, Nigeria

International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, 2013

This study examined the use of information communication technology (ICT) on securing marketing information among small scale farmers in Niger State, Nigeria. Data were obtained from 90 respondents through the use of structured questionnaire. The information collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression technique. Results of the analysis showed that majority of the respondents were in their active age of production and were married. Most of the respondents obtained their information from radio, television, and newspaper. The finding also indicated that the years spent in school and not the educational achievement is what is likely to increase the probability of awareness. Problems identified with regards to the usage of ICTs by the respondents include language barrier, poverty, and illiteracy. It was therefore recommended that government and nongovernmental organizations should collaborate to include ICT workshop and training in farmer education programmes, encourage programmes like NYSC ICT volunteer group, and translate technology to local languages.

Assessment of constraints to participation of rural women in technology dissemination of women in agriculture program in Imo State, Nigeria

2019

The survey was conducted to identify constraints to participation of rural women in technology dissemination of Women in Agriculture Program (WIA) in Imo State, Nigeria. Questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 60 respondents. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage and mean score. Results showed that 33.0% of the respondents were aged between 41 and 50 years, majority (75.0%) were married, 88.0% had formal education and 55.3% engaged in farming and trading, while 56.6% had a household size of 6-10 persons. The respondents participated in the activities like processing and utilization of food crops (16.7%), harvesting and storage of food crops (16.7%), dry season vegetable production (13.3%), processing and utilization of livestock products (10.0%), processing and utilization of soya bean into soya milk and soya meal (6.7%). The study recommended that rural women should be encouraged Original Research Article Okeke et al.; ARJA, 11(3): 1-7, 2019; Article no.ARJA.50080 2 to join cooperative societies in order to pull their resources together. It also highlighted the need for promotion of rural women's activities through adequate provision of credit facilities by government at all levels for optimum productivity.

What Drives Technology Utilisation, Learning and Transfer in Agriculture? Lessons from Nigerian Women Farmers

2013

This study examines the factors that drive technology utilisation, learning and transfer among women farmers in Nigeria. It assesses both modern and indigenous technologies used in farming activities. Three states were purposively selected from the six that comprise the South West geopolitical zone of the country. Structured questionnaire was administered to 180 women smallholder farmers who were randomly selected in equal proportion across the three states. Some 128 copies of questionnaire were retrieved representing a response rate of about 71%. The study reveals that majority of the women (about 67%) use indigenous technologies while only a few (17%) and 16% use modern technologies and a combination of both respectively. Family and friends are the main source of learning indigenous technologies while extension agents are the major source of modern. The study uses spearman correlation to determine the drivers of the dependent variables. Age, level of education, years of experience...

Use of Mobile Phone Technology in Agricultural Marketing

International Journal of ICT Research and Development in Africa, 2011

The mobile phone technology is an important tool to enhance farmers’ access to better paying agricultural markets. The study reports the results of a household study in Mwanza, Dedza and Mzimba Districts of Malawi. The study assesses drivers of adoption of mobile phone technology for agricultural marketing by smallholder farmers. The study used regression techniques to identify drivers and extent of mobile phone use. Results show that use is positively affected by literacy, distance to local market, land size, current value of assets, crop income, and region variations but negatively influenced by access to electricity. Intensity of use is conditioned by gender, participation in agricultural projects, ownership of a mobile phone, current asset value, distance to nearest public phone services, and region variations. Asset endowment plays a critical role in enhancing adoption of mobile phone technology. Gender disparities significantly affect adoption as most women have limited access...

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

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 multistage 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...