Rural Livestock Farmers Perception of Ecological Niches of Information and Communication Technology Devices in Livestock Production, Management and Improvement in Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated rural livestock farmers’ perception of Ecological Niches of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in livestock production, management and improvement in Imo State, Nigeria. Some objectives of the study include the identification of the various information and communication technology devices used by livestock farmers in the study area, identify the functions of ICT devices in livestock production, management and improvement. Data were collected through questionnaire distributed to 150 ICT-User rural livestock farmers randomly selected from a list of 1500 livestock farmers in Imo State, Nigeria. Percentages, presented in frequency distribution tables, mean scores were used to analyze the data. Results showed that the ICT tools available to the rural livestock farmers include mobile phones (91.3%), radio (56.6%), television (61.3%) and the internet (60%). With an acceptable mean score of 2.50, ICT tools play vital functions in livestock production, management and improvement. Such niches include reduced cost of production (M=2.80), facilitate livestock health care (M=3.31), track where about of animals (M=2.90), provision of technical advice (M=3.10), information on feeds/feeding (M=2.80), record keeping (M=2.80), forecast incidence of diseases (M=3.41), among other functions. The above underscores the importance of information communication technologies in livestock agriculture and the business of farming in general.