Ict for Agriculture Knowledge Management in Nigeria: Lessons and Strategies for Improvement

Abstract

In this century alone our world is faced with an increasingly complex challenge of feeding its growing population, while assuring an equitable and sustainable development. Scientific and technological progress is generating the knowledge and tools to make this possible. The more recent scientific revolution that is taking place at the turn of the century, based on the emergence of the new areas of science, namely in molecular biology (Biotechnology), in agroecology and sustainable agricultural production, and in information and communication technology, is leading to the growing importance of knowledge in present day agriculture and natural resource management. Knowledge has become the most important factor of production, and it plays a critical role in our capacity to respond to the challenges of food security, poverty eradication and sustainable development. The emergence of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the last decade has opened new avenues in knowledge management that could play important roles in meeting the prevailing challenges related to sharing, exchanging, and disseminating knowledge and technologies. ICT allows capitalizing to a great extent on the wealth of information and knowledge available for agricultural knowledge. The ultimate objectives of agriculture knowledge activities are to come up with results that can advance research more in certain areas, and engender technologies that stakeholders can use to increase production, conserve the environment. The paper thus discusses the valuable contribution of ICT to Agriculture Knowledge Management, gathering storing, retrieving, adapting localizing and disseminating innovations needed by rural farm families and linkages between research and extension systems. We reviewed the situation in Nigeria, lessons for Nigeria and the strategies to be adopted for improvement as well as the challenges related to sharing, exchanging and disseminating agricultural, knowledge.