Journal of Agricultural Extension (Dec 2007)
Challenges to Effective Use of Information Commnicatio Technologies (ICTs) in the Delivery of Agricultural Extension Service
Abstract
The promise of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in agricultural extension is that it can energize the collection processing and transmission of data, resulting in faster extension of quality information to more farmers a bottom-up andinteractive means of communication Agricultural extension which depends to a large extent on information exchange between andamong farmers on the one hand, anda broadrange of other actors on the other hand, has been identified as one area in which ICTs can have a particularly significant impact. However studies have shown that agricultural developmentinmost developingcountries including Nigeria hasbeenhamperedbylow level agriculturalinformation exchange. Thispaperidentified the major challenges to the effective use ofICTs in agricultural extension service andproffered solutions to the problems bugging the effective use of ICTs in agricultural extension service. Notable among these challenges is the lack of conducive policy environment that will facilitate the use of ICTs for rural development programmes and extension service. The paper concludes that a situation analysis is necessary by different countries and regions in ascertaining themostimportant challenges they face andthepossible solutions to apply to achieve a successfulandeffective use of1CTs the delivery of agriculturalextension service.
