Socioeconomic determinants and availability of ICT for use among small holder rice farmers in Southeast, Nigeria
| Main Authors: | Gbughemobi B.O., Umebali, E.E., Nkamigbo, D.C. |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article eJournal |
| Bahasa: | eng |
| Terbitan: |
, 2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
https://zenodo.org/record/5624357 |
Daftar Isi:
- Abstract— The study examined socioeconomic determinants and availability of ICT for use among small holder rice farmers in Southeast, Nigeria. Specifically, it described enterprise characteristics of the farmers, ICT availability to rice farmers, enterprise characteristics and their level of use of ICT. Data were collected with a well-structured questionnaire from 476 randomly selected rice farmers and were analyzed using a combination of analytical tools such as descriptive statistics, Tobit regression, Analysis of variance, correlation and z-test. The result revealed male dominance (61.3%), active age (mean age of 38 years), high percentage of married farmers (65.5%). The mean years of formal education (10 years), mean farming experience was 9 years while the mean household size, farm size and annual income from rice were 5 persons, 11.42 plots, and N426, 499.76 respectively. Also, the primary occupation was majorly (64.5%) farmers. The study equally showed that majority (62.0% and 99.7%) of the farmers sampled in Ebonyi and Enugu were members of farmer’s cooperative. The result of farmer’s response on ICT availability revealed that most of the ICT tools were scarcely available. Tobit regression analysis showed that age, marital status, primary occupation, household size and farm size were significant, while result of significant relationship between the levels of use of ICT tools/format and availability showed a positive and strong relationship with the level of use of ICT. It was recommended that Government and other relevant bodies should ensure that ICT facilities are installed in rural communities and the cost of ICT tools/format and other ICT infrastructures should be subsidized for rice farmers in order to increase their access to information that is beneficial for rice production.