CHAPTER
ONE
1.0 Background of the study
1.1
Introduction
The
agricultural extension services (also known as agriculture advisory services)
refers to the range of information, advice, training and knowledge related to
agriculture or livestock production, process and marketing, provided by the
government, NGOs, and other source that increase farmers’ ability to improve
their productivity and income (Cantore, 2011). Delivery may take the form of
individual or group visits, organized meetings, use of information and
communication technologies (ICTs), or teaching through the use of demonstration
plots, model farms, or farmer field schools (FFSs) (Meinzen-Dick, et al.,
2011).
Agriculture
constitutes a major livelihood sector and most of the rural poor depend on rain
fed agriculture and fragile forests for their livelihoods. Farmers in rural
areas have to deal with failed crops and animal illness frequently and due to
limited communication facilities, solutions to their problems remain out of
reach (World Bank, 2009).
Agricultural
Extension is a service or system which assists farmers through educational
procedures in improving farming methods
and techniques, increasing production efficiency and income, bettering their levels of living and lifting the social
and educational standards of rural life (Maunder, 1973). Agricultural extension
services include transferring knowledge to farmers, advising and educating
farmers in their decision making, enabling farmers to clarify their own goals
and possibilities, and stimulating desirable agricultural developments.
Traditional public-sector extension services use a variety of extension
programmes to overcome barriers to technological adoption without much success
(Aker, 2010).
Worldwide
the agricultural sector is faced with several serious challenges: the spiraling
demand for food, declining cultivated area due to population pressure,
declining agriculture productivity due to the natural resource degradation, and
increasing competition in international markets (Umali, et al., 1994).
Agricultural
extension, which depends to a large extent on information exchange between and
among farmers on the one hand, and a broad range of other actors on the other,
has been identified as one area in which ICTs can have a particularly significant
impact. There is growing recognition that farmers and members of rural
communities have needs for information and appropriate learning methods that
are not being met (Greenridge, 2003; Lightfoot, 2003).
The
challenges of extension have opened the door to examine how Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) can be cost-effectively and practically
employed to facilitate information delivery and knowledge sharing among
farmers, extension agents and other stakeholders (Kiplang‘at, 1999; Richardson,
2003).
So
far, we are adopting the traditional systems such as agricultural information
materials i.e., pamphlets, posters etc. radio, videos and television to
disseminate the agricultural information to the farmers. In this system, there
is lot of lag in reaching the information to the farmers. The information
should be accurate and it should reach at right time. The rapid growth of the
Information Technology and Communications Systems has changed the world
scenario entirely and, now linking two computers from anywhere in the world is
an easy task. The emergence of Internet and e-mail systems has changed the
inter-relations of personal contact so fast. To reduce the gap between rural
and urban people, various ICT projects have been initiated by the Government,
NGOs and private companies. The result was linking of villages with wired
network in many parts of the country.
1.1 Project Statement
As the current
agricultural information is spread by public and private actors, trainings,
meeting and other traditional ways of communication to farmers and other
agricultural stakeholders in Nigeria, agriculture extension sectors have got
some weaknesses. Among the weaknesses one can list the following: it takes a
long time to provide and to get trainings in normal forms (where trainer and
the trainee(s) meet physically in the same location for exchanging a face to
face dialogue); sometimes, extension information is expensive (in addition to
the fees for getting extension services, some groups of farmers can hire an
expert on their own); The quality of information is questionable. The software
will provide a solution to the aforementioned weaknesses in terms of
agriculture extension services by designing a website that will allow Online
Advisory and Assistance Service to anyone participating in agricultural domain.
1.2 Objective of the Study
This study aimed to investigate which
challenges are encountered in agricultural extension services and whether these
can be resolved by use of ICT tools in general and especially web-based online
advisory platform.
- To assess the current extension
information sufficiency and access to agricultural stakeholders in federal
college of agriculture ishiagu, from case studies.
- To know the agricultural
information needed by FCAI farmers and other agricultural stakeholders and way
of getting it.
- To evaluate the agricultural
stakeholders’ awareness and access to web technologies in Nigeria.
- To assess the use and access to ICT
extension information in Nigeria.
- To know
whether the web based extension system can be applied in Nigeria.
1.3. Significance of the study
Many
actors may act in harmony to develop agriculture sector where small and medium
farmers, agriculture extension agents, cooperatives of farmers, researchers,
mentors, service providers, public and private institutions, NGOs and
government are working together and all their efforts aiming at improving
farmer’s livelihood and at the same time the country’s GDP. This can be
achieved through different ways including field extension and online or ICT
based advisory system. This study focused on agricultural online advisory and
assistance in order to reduce the gap present in this mode of extension that
constitutes one of powerful initiatives for developing rural areas.