FACTORS INFLUENCING THE USE OF E-AGRICULTURE INFORMATION SOURCES AND THEIR EXTENT OF USAGE ON THE LIVELIHOOD STATUS OF CEREAL CROP FARMERS IN BORNO AND KEBBI STATES, NIGERIA
Mshelizah R. J1., O. J. Ajayi2, J. H. Tsado2, M. Mohammed2, G. Y. Chonoko1 , M. Y. Gele3 & A. Y. Sanda1
1Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, College of Agriculture Zuru, Kebbi State
2Department of Agricultural Extn and Rural Development, Federal University of Technology, Minna
3Department of Agricultural Technology, Colleges of Agriculture Zuru, Kebbi State
Email: rejoicejames19@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The study examined the factors that influence the cereal crop farmers’ usage of e-agriculture information sources and their extent of usage on their livelihood status in Borno and Kebbi state, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study are; to investigate the sources of information of e- agriculture and their extent of usage by the cereal crop farmers, to examine the livelihood status of the cereal crop farmers in the usage of e-agriculture information sources and to determine the factors that influence the usage of e-agriculture by the cereal crop farmers in the study area. Three (3) stage sampling procedure were used for the sampling. Data were collected using structured questionnaires. Simple descriptive statistics along with Likert scale of measurement were used to summarize the data collected on objectives (i) and (ii), while logit regression model and Pearson product moment correlation (PPMC) were used to achieve objective (iii) and tested the hypothesis of this study respectively. The result of the simple descriptive statistics revealed that, about 90% of the cereal crop farmers were using e-agriculture information sources. The likert scale result on extent of usage revealed that, mobile phone which is ranked 1st in extent of usage with the mean score of 2.70 is highly in used by the cereal crop famers, along with radio which is ranked 2nd in extent of usage with mean score of 2.64. The marginal effect result of logit regression revealed an inverse relationship between age (-2.59***), household size (-2.75***) and labour usage (-1.82***) which are negative, but has significant influence on the cereal crop farmers usage of e-agriculture information sources. These variables are significant at 1%, and 10% levels of significance respectively. Result on education (4.10***), farm size (2.86***), extension contact (2.73***), membership of cooperative (3.73***), sources of e-agriculture (4.34***), e-agriculture information on marketing (3.45***) and e-agriculture information on training (3.21***) are positive and statistically significant at 1% levels of significance. The hypothesis that was tested using PPMC, revealed direct and inverse correlations between livelihood status and the extent of usage of e-agriculture information sources all at 0.05 levels of significance, it was weak correlations, but lead to the rejection of the null hypothesis of the study. Conclusively, the most used e-agriculture information sources are obviously mobile phone, radio and other farmers (friends). Therefore, cereal crop farmers are encouraged to explore the use of other sources of e-agriculture information; also extension contact with farmers in the study area should be increased as this will help them gain new knowledge that may help enhance their productivity. Keynote: Factors influencing, Extent of Usage, E-agriculture information sources, Livelihood Status, Cereal Crop Farmers, Borno and Kebbi
