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.

Has mobile phone technology aided the growth of agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa?

“…The conclusion is that there is a positive relationship between mobile phone and economic development in developing countries; therefore, an increase in the number of mobile phone users leads to an increase in real GDP per capita. Nnadi et al (2012) observed that ICT is a medium that has radically improved interaction around the globe, implying the need to create a strong link characterised by the impeccable flow of information; this is because ICT improves the quality and timing of information between extension agents and farmers, rather than passing information through a long bureaucratic chain. Employing data, collected through focus group discussions and interviews with fishermen and farmers across five states in India, Mittal, Gandhi and Tripathi (2010) remarked that mobile phones enabled the respondents to receive timely information, assisting them to increase their yields.…”

Does contract farming improve smallholder income? The case of avocado farmers in Kenya

“…To the extent that about 70 per cent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods (Nnadi et al, 2012), improving smallholder farmers' access to markets both locally and internationally could be one of the strategies to achieving the eight millennium development goals. Kenya in particular has 90 per cent of smallholder farmers in all but the arid regions engaging in the production of horticultural products (Mutuku et al, 2004).…”