EXTENSION WORKER ATTITUDE TOWARD INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY FOR EXTENSION WORK

ABSTRACT

Although Information Communication Technology (ICT) integration in agriculture is changing the tempo of the sector globally, Ghana‘s agricultural sector has lagged behind in harnessing this potential. A survey was conducted to seek the views of agricultural extension agents (AEAs) in the Ga East and Tema municipal districts of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to ascertain the potential of ICT use in extension work. Data was collected using structured interviews and questionnaires and were analyzed by using computer software Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), using frequency counts, percentages and chi square analysis. Analysis of the data shows that majority of the respondents were between the ages of 25-45, majority were male and had a tertiary degree and 50% of the respondents had work experience up to 7years. Availability, access and use of mobile phones and the internet was high. All the respondents had mobile phones available to them, 80% owned and had access to a computer while 43.3% had access to the internet. Results from the study showed that 63.7% of the respondents use mobile phones mainly to communicate orally with farmers, family and friends while less than half use SMS. It was observed that more than half of the respondents use e-mail but limited use of it for communication with farmers. In addition to the main constraints to the use of these ICTs such as high cost of recharge cards (units) and poor network connectivity loss of information, use of these ICTs by fraudsters and power cuts were also identified as specific constraints faced by AEAs. Access to mobile phone and internet were not dependent on the ages, sex, educational background and work experience of the respondents. Results showed that 30% of the AEAs expressed strong intention to use mobile phones, 56.7% expressed very strong intention to use mobile phones while 46.7% expressed very strong intentions to use SMS in carrying out their work. From the service delivery point of view there is therefore great potential for extension workers and agricultural extension services to harness the potential of mobile phones and the internet to access, store and deliver timely and relevant agricultural information to farmers. It is concluded that with AEAs expressing strong intention to use ICTs for extension work, the capacity of AEAs should be built in basic computer and internet skills to reap the full benefit of e-extension and for it to be successful.