THE CONCEPT OF ICT ON AGRICULTURAL INPUT INFORMATION: A FRAMEWORK DESIGN

Abstract

Information is a critical farming input as it serves as a tool to enable farmers to make well-informed farming production decisions such as: best planting time, and best farming practices which in turn contributes to farming higher productivity. Small-scale farmers in developing nations’ rural areas are major contributors to food security in developing nations’ rural areas. Given the importance of small-scale farming in developing nations’ rural areas, developing nations’ rural small-scale farmers timely access to relevant agricultural information will assist the farmers to make right decisions towards pursuing sustainable, value-added agriculture and long-term growth to ensure developing nations’ rural areas food security. Existing literature reveals that small-scale farmers in developing nation rural areas are disadvantaged by imperfect information to make well informed decisions. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) applications in agriculture become the easier way for rural small-scale farmers to access well rounded agricultural knowledge. As a result of ICT, various online platforms and websites that cater to the information needs of small-scale farmers exist. As farmers’ usage of information and ICT tools are influenced by the source and perceived gain from ICT. A model designed to enhance developing nations’ rural small-scale farmers’ uptake of ICT through the understanding of intervening variables of individual characteristics explicated by case studies of selected rural small-scale farmers in Wenchi Municipal Assembly, Ghana is the aim of the current study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 70 participants for the case study. Using open and closed-ended questionnaires, empirical data were collected to determine the intervening variables of the selected farmers’ communication. The identified intervening variables in the farmers’ seeking of information revealed that the farmers search for information through verbal communication. Thus, the study recommends the use of ICT platforms that promote oral or verbal communications such as automated voice messages to stream agricultural input information to the farmers in the study area to realize an effective utilization of ICT by the farmers to access agricultural input information. The study proposed framework becomes a tool to assist stakeholders concerned with implementing ICT application to enhance rural small-scale farming to gather knowledge to design tailor-made solutions.