Department: Agricultural Economics and Extension Services
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1
ANALYSIS OF USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AMONG MAIZE
FARMERS IN ZARIA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA
The study assessed the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among maize farmers in Zaria
local government area of Kaduna state, Nigeria. The data was collected through a pretested structured questionnaire
from one hundred and twenty (120) maize farmers from four wards using simple random sampling technique.
Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. The results from the study show that the maize farmers havea
mean age of 34 years with 51.7% of them between 28-37 years. Furthermore, the result shows that majority
(93.3%) of the maize farmers were male, married(76.7% ), and with most of them (64.2%)having a household
size of 1-10.Also, about 39.2% of the maize farmers had tertiary education while most (68.33%) of themhave been
in farming for at least 10 years. It was revealed that the most available ICTs used are radio (95.8%), mobile phone
(92.5%), television (80.0%), internet (70.0%), camera (66.7%) and computer (56.7%). The frequency of ICTs usage
revealed that mobile phone (mean=4.24) ranked the highest, closely followed by radio (mean=4.20). The study
found that unstable electric power supply and lack of technical expertise were the major constraints that maize
farmers encountered in using ICTs. The study concluded that mobile phone, radio, television and computer are the
most available and frequently used ICTs in the study area. Efficient and trained extension workers are recommended
in order to provide training and teaching in ICTs education for agricultural production, this will assist in the building
capacity of maize farmers.
