Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester

School of Agriculture

Research Seminar

Presenter

Samson Olayemi Sennuga PhD Candidate

12 May, 2015

Thesis

The use of Information and Communication Technologies

(ICTs) among Extension workers and Farmers and its

Relevance to Sustainable Agricultural Development in

Nigeria

What I will talk about …….

• Introduce the background and context of the study

• Consider the challenges facing Nigerian Smallholders

• Give an overview of Extension and the use of ICTs in

the context of the Nigeria Agricultural Information

Systems

• Link these to Good Agricultural Practices

• State the Research Aims in the context of the key

Agricultural Information needs of farmers

• Introduce the Study Area

• Give an overview of the Research Strategy and data analysis

• Discuss the Relevance/Potential Contribution to Knowledge

and farmer livelihoods improvement

Introduction and background of the study

Extension is defined broadly to include:

all system that facilitate access to farmers, their organizations and other

market actors to knowledge, information and technologies.

facilitate their interaction with partners in research, education, agric-business

and other relevant institutions.

assist them to develop their own technical, organizational and management

skill and practices.

FAO, 2012; Christopolos et al., 2013

Problems for Small-scale farmers in Nigeria

Small scale farmers are the back bone of food production in Nigeria.

Estimated that 90% of all agricultural production in Nigeria is derived

from the output of smallholder farmers (Arokoyo, 2013).

However, in spite of public extension services they are faced with some challenges

ranging from:

Extreme poverty.

High level of illiteracy and use of primitive tools.

Extension agents that do not visit farmlands away from road or in remote areas.

Extension workers that do not have updated knowledge of new crop varieties,

pest control and government schemes and subsidies.

Weak and even dysfunctional Research-Extension-Farmer linkages.

Political neglect of Agriculture largely due to the oil boom

There is now a need to:

Raise these farmers out of poverty into productive agriculture and improve their

livelihoods.

Will ICTs accelerate this?........................

Agricultural Extension Model

However, the attendant ineffectiveness and inefficiency of these traditional extension models

in meeting information needs of rural households, triggered a serious debate among scholars

to advocate for the use of ICTs tool as a complementary tool to disseminate information that

will increase productivity and generate higher income among farmers (Aker, 2011).

Source: Davis, 2008

ICTs refers to set of tools, equipment, applications and services that are

utilized to produce, capture, store, disseminate and exchange information

(World Bank, 2012)

By this definition, it is imperative to note that ICTs are for information

dissemination, which is expected to improve the farmer’s knowledge and

productivity.

Sources of Agricultural Information for farmers include;

Radio and Television, Mobile phones, Short Message Services,

Computer, Email, Video, The Web, Search engines, CD-ROM, DVD,

Printed Material, Photographs, Group meetings and Workshops etc

In Nigeria, ICTs are increasingly becoming underlying drivers of social,

economic and agricultural development. Since 2001, Nigeria has

witnessed the explosion in the use of ICT (Mwakaje, 2010).

Definition of ICTs

Nigeria Agricultural Information System

• Dissemination of agricultural information in a participatory approach

ensure farmers have adequate knowledge and skills to address their

needs and increase productivity.

• The achievement of high productivity depends on the availability and

access to appropriate agricultural information.

• The under utilization of ICT in dissemination of agricultural information

are thought to have contributed to the reduction of agricultural

productivity, economic performance and food security in Nigeria.

Research Aim

The overall aim of this study is to explore how ICTs could be used

to improve the adoption of Good Agricultural Practices and to

increase productivity of smallholder farmers in Nigeria by using

mobile telecommunication (GSM) as an extension tool supporting

traditional extension approaches.

The focus will be around improving agricultural practices which

leads us to ask:

• What are Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)?

• How can GAP and Information increase productivity of farmers

in Nigeria?

Definition of Good Agricultural Practices

Good Agricultural Practices are a collection of principles to apply for on-farm

production and post-production process, resulting in safe and healthy food

and non-food agricultural products, while taking into account economical,

social and environmental sustainability (FAO, 2013).

Such as maintaining soil fertility, water resource and irrigation, animal

production and welfare, as integrated pest management, integrated

fertilizer management and conservation agriculture.

GAP, helps to improve market access and farmer’s livelihoods (FAO, 2013).

Good practices at farm level can make a huge difference and create rural

prosperity!

WHAT DO YOU THINK I NEED TO KNOW

TO INCREASE MY PRODUCTIVITY?

Extension

worker

The key Agricultural Information needs of farmers

Market information; market prices

Information on upcoming pest and

diseases attack and weather/rain patterns

Information on Government Agricultural and NGOs subsidies schemes

on seeds, fertilizers; online loan facilities and online trading.

Information on cropping pattern and fertilizer use

Information on new crop varieties,

irrigation frequency and setting up farm-

based enterprises.

According to World Bank 2012; FAO, 2013 &

Aker et al., 2013; listed the following:

The Study Area

Shika community

Tunwada community

The study will be conducted in two communities (Shika and Tunwada) in the Semi-arid

region of Kaduna State, North Western, Nigeria. The participants shall be smallholder

farmers and extension workers from Government, NGO’s, Academia and the Private

Sector, in the North Western Nigeria.

Note: Semi-arid is defined as area falling within the rainfall zone of 300-600mm (FAO,

2013). The region is low in rainfall and agricultural harvest are likely to be irregular

(Goodin & Northington, 2000).

MAP OF NIGERIA SHOWING THE STUDY

MAP OF AFRICA

Research Methodology

The target population for this study include smallholder farmers from Shika and

Tunwada communities and extension officers.

Stratified sampling procedure will be used to select 20 workers to represent

age, experience, training and gender and 60 households from each community.

Farmer, Community and Industry Engagement

Initial community meeting to introduce researcher and research objectives.

Adapted livelihood survey will be used, 120 farmers will be targeted (60) per

community to create a baseline.

Key theme in the survey include household assets, farm characteristics, extension

advice, income generating activities and enterprises involved in by farming households

along with additional questions on market information.

Specific questions on how ICTs could improve adoption of improved technologies and

it constraints, farmers coping strategies and available guidance.

Focus group discussions with extension officers from Government, NGO’s,

Academia and the Private Sector.

Shika and Tunwada communities will be divided into those that use ICTs and

those who do not or rarely use it (adopter and non-adopter of ICT) based on the

first livelihood survey.

Research Methodology cont’d

Extension workers will be interview and may also participate in community meeting.

After analysis of the first livelihood survey, all participating farmers and extension workers will

be trained in the Climate Smart GAP’s so as to be able to reduce the negative impact of climate

change and be given action plans to follow, that will be supported by usual extension visit.

Half of the farmers from Shika and Tundawa communities consisting adopters and non-

adopters will be giving training on the effective use of Mobile phones to obtain relevant

information that will improve their productivities.

Timely reminders through ICT to find out whether ICT (mobile phone) improve adoption of

technologies or not.

The Final survey will include some key questions about types of communication ranging from

the value of traditional extension, ICT and the popular “I saw my neighbour doing it the activity”.

Farmers will be given improved seeds as an incentive for participating in the study.

Data Analysis

• A qualitative software (NVivo) shall be employed in coding

and analysing qualitative data from interviews to be

conducted.

• Other analytical techniques to be used include graphs,

pictorial, charts and tables

Relevance/Potential Contributions to Knowledge

• Complement extension with the use of ICTs in order to boost

production and improve rural livelihood which is seriously lacking

in the literature.

• Use of Good Agricultural Practices and ICTs has never been

conducted in Africa before.

• This study will create rural prosperity in the Northwestern Nigeria.

• Through this study Agricultural Information Centres will be

established in the two communities via Ministry of Agriculture, in

order to reach the unreached.

Conclusion

• Access to relevant and timely Information have the capacity to

increase productivity of smallholder farmers.

• A good agricultural practices and step-up prices (farm prices)

would put more money into the hands of farmers.

• Finally, Agriculture in Nigeria needs a productivity and quality

revolution, which can be brought out through the much-needed

reforms; information access, extension services, credits,

marketing, pricing and rural infrastructure and land reforms.

References

Aker, J.C. (2013). Dial “A” for agriculture: a review of information and communication

technologies for agricultural extension in developing countries, Agricultural Economics 42,

631–647

Davis, K.E. (2008). Extension in Sub-Saharan Africa: Overview and Assessment of Past and

Current Models, and Future Prospects. Journal of International Agricultural and Extension

Education, 15 (3):15-27

FAO (2013). Progress report - 2001. Farmer innovation and new technology options for food

production, income generation, and combating desertification. KEN/99/200. Nairobi: FAO.

farmers to manage plant diseases. Plant Disease, 85 (7):684–695

World Bank (2012). World Development Report: Agriculture for Development. Washington

DC, World Bank

Thank you !