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Vol 32, 2015

ICT Use in Livestock Innovation Chain in Ibadan City in Nigeria

Williams E. Nwagwu Opeyemi Soremi
Africa Regional Centre for Information Science, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract
Using data collected from 300 goat/sheep, poultry, cattle, piggery, aquaculture and dog rearing farmers, this
study examined ICT awareness, and its use in innovation chain by livestock farmers in Ibadan, an agrarian
community in Nigeria. The study also examined the relationship between ICT use, awareness, and uses in the
various innovation links as well as how demographic characteristics of the farmers relate to their ICT use. For all
the technologies, listed number of respondents reporting awareness is higher than those reporting use, except for
mobile phone where equal number of respondents reported both awareness and use. Marketing is the purpose for
which most of the respondents reported using ICT. Computers were used by large famers for feed formulation
and knowledge management; mobile phones served the purpose of managing animal health, linking customers,
managing of farms and marketing of goods while internet/email was scarcely reportedly used for farming
purpose. The findings of the study raises the question of building electronic livestock farmers network as well as
training farmers on how ICT could used to meet production and animal health needs.

Introduction
Agriculture is a major component of Nigeria’s economic life, with livestock constituting an integral part.
Livestock farming contributes immensely to the livelihood in urban and rural communities through increased
food production, farm energy, manure, fuel, transportation and nutritional security and incomes (Tewe, 1997).
Livestock accounts for one third of Nigeria’s agricultural gross domestic product (GDP). In 2010, livestock
production contributed substantially to Nigeria’s economy, accounting for about 11% of the total GDP
(Encyclopedia of the Nations, 2010). The dominant livestock enterprises mainly engaged in by Nigerian
livestock farmers are poultry, piggery, rabbittary, beef diary and pasture production and small ruminant fattening
operations (International Water Resources Management, 2005). Like most sectors, agriculture is an information-
intensive business, and ICT could play crucial roles in facilitating information exchange ((Todaro, 2000). The
role of information could be visualized from the perspective of development, flow and management of
information and ideas in the various links in the system of livestock farming namely input/procurement,
production, marketing, sales and health management issues.
ICT could help farmers in Nigeria to efficiently access current information and also provide information
to buyers and consumers alike through innovative avenues like joining online communities of farmers,
advertising in local farmers markets that might host a neighborhood website and joining social network sites
such as Facebook to build community interest around the farmer’s activities (Jones 1997). Using ICT can also
enable farmers use their savings in a number of ways, with many investing their extra income back into their
businesses or paying for their children to go to school (Jama, Stuth, Kaitho, Hurissa, 2004). These advantages
notwithstanding, ICT deployment in livestock in Nigerian communities is expected to be fragmented and light,
with disparities according to the level and quality of telecommunication services, ability and demographic
characteristics of individuals as well as the scale of enterprises where those individuals are affiliated among
others. Farmers who are highly educated or are engaged in large scale farming, for instance, would most likely
deploy ICT more than the others.
Farmers could also easily use the mobile phones and other ICT to inform customers about the
availability of products or discuss and negotiate prices. Many farmers live far away from their farms, and may
need to regularly link up with those managing their farms to be abreast of the farm conditions. On educational
aspects, farmers could learn how to manage farms, formulate feeds, or manage some diseases and others, by
browsing through the internet or linking with their vet, fellow farmers and others. Also, ICT will be very useful
in animal health management. Like in all health situations, animal health challenges might develop at any time
and farmers might need to reach their health care providers to either visit the farms or supply information about
what could be done to manage the situation. Farmers could visit the internet, use email or the mobile phones or
any other instant messaging devices to seek for information about what to do.
The potential benefits of ICT to farmers and farm processes call for need to understand factors that
might influence the use of the technologies by farmers. Similar studies exist ((Kiplang’at, 1999; Heeks, 1999;
Bayes, 2001; Dao, 2004), but there is none on Ibadan city, an agrarian and largest semi urban community in
West Africa. However, interactions with agricultural extension workers and agro-based entrepreneurs as well
as literature sources (Agwu and Uche-Mba, 2010) show that cost of the technology, lack of training, trust level
in ICT, lack of ICT proficiency, lack of technological infrastructure and non-awareness and unwillingness to
use new technologies could be influencers of use of ICT by farmers in many Nigerian communities. This

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evidence emanates mainly from general observations, with a few studies based on the opinions of farmers who
are directly involved with the use of the ICT. Furthermore, there are no streamlined studies that show how
relevant these general factors are to livestock farming in any Nigerian community with their unique agricultural
processes and demands.
According to International Water Management Institute (2007) Ibadan is mainly an agricultural
economy and crop production accounts for 72% of the 5082 farms, livestock agriculture accounts for 26%
while 1.6% of the farms are used for non-traditional agriculture. Like many other ICT users, farmers in Ibadan
are expected to be encountering some challenges in using ICT. ICT is by far an elitist technology, and its
maximal deployment has been found on a number of occasions to relate to demographic characteristics of users.
Younger and more educated persons use ICT more than those who are older and not educated (Leung 2005).
Level of awareness about the existence and benefits of ICT use in agriculture could also affect actual and
adequate use of the technology. It will therefore be expected that the challenges confronting ICT deployment
by the farmers might vary according to the scale of business, level of education of the farmers and other factors.
Technology level in Nigeria has consistently been found to be low (Uwaifo and Uddin, 2009).
International Water Resources Management (IWRM 2005) showed further that livestock farming in the
city is significantly undertaken. What are the technologies used by livestock farmers in Ibadan to achieve
information exchange in the innovation chains? What are the factors influencing use of ICT by the farmers.
What is the level of ICT awareness among livestock farmers? Also, the study elicits and analyses specific
experiences of ICT use to facilitate information exchange by livestock farmers in the city. Addressing these
questions would yield information that can be useful in addressing how ICT could be further deployed to
improve the activities of farmers.
This study is designed to examine ICT awareness, its general use and its use in livestock innovation
chain by livestock farmers in Ibadan, an agrarian community in Nigeria. The study also examines the
relationship between ICT use, awareness, and use in the innovation chain as well as how demographic
characteristics of farmers relate to their ICT use in the innovation chain. In a study in the United States, Mishra
and Williams (2006) found that adoption of computers with internet access is positively influenced by age of
farmer, educational level of farmer, and other variables. They also found that large farms were more likely to
adopt computers with internet access.

Literature Review
ICT in agriculture
Information and communication technologies (ICT) play inevitable roles in every aspect of human activities
today, including agriculture. The key players in agriculture are the farmers, and their ability to use the
technologies defines the role of ICT in agriculture generally. ICT use by farmers is now on the increase globally.
In increasing access and exchanging of information, ICT offer the potential to increase efficiency, productivity,
competitiveness and growth in various aspects of agricultural sector. Farmers that engage in commercial
agriculture in large scale might be expected to be using cameras, computing devices, digital imaging, the Internet
and Wide Area Networking (WAN), Wi-Fi, SMS services, WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) based Internet
access using cellular telephony, and digital media and DVD, among others (2003). Those that engage in
agriculture in small scale utilize various other forms of ICT such as mobile phones, computers, and the internet,
etc.
Of all technologies, the mobile phone is certainly an instrument of choice for many farmers, both large
and small scale. Mobile phones are cheap, easy to manage, power efficient and encourages personalized
interactions. Mobile phones enable farmers to compare prices more efficiently and to link up with other buyers
who were not previously easily accessible. Mobile phone helps to improve the links between farmers and traders,
creating opportunities for small-scale producers to sell to new markets, thereby increasing their incomes and
helping to reduce poverty in the area. ICT use in agriculture in Nigeria is still evolving, just like in many
developing areas. There is some evidence of application at individual levels as well as initiatives at
organizational level. However, it is relatively unknown whether the ultimate beneficiaries – the farmers
themselves- actually use the facilities to meet their needs. The major problems in adoption of ICT in rural
settings are ICT illiteracy, availability of relevant and localized contents in own languages, easy and affordable
accessibility and awareness and willingness to adopt new technologies.

ICT in the Innovation

Generally, ICT can contribute to agriculture in three major ways, and they are: data and information
management, agricultural services such as marketing and learning and capacity building. At individual,
community and state levels, adequate information is required to manage livestock farming. Policies need to be
developed and strategies formulated; activities have to be monitored and impact evaluated to ensure that
projects and programmes achieve their expected goals (NEPAD, 2006). Various levels of stakeholders benefit

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from data management including farmers and animal owners, farming communities, extension agents and
service providers. There also exist marketing intermediaries, consumers and programme managers as well as
researchers and research managers and policy makers. These information are required for animal improvement
and breeding, animal health and disease surveillance, nutrition and natural resources management and farm
management. Furthermore the information is required for community/village level livestock and agricultural
production systems management and market related activities. The level of information that is processed range
from meeting the needs of individual animal, herds, farm, community, village, and research institute to those
for medium production and large scale system such as national, regional or state levels (Bourn and Wint, 1994;
Butcher, 1994; Scarborough, 1996)
In respect of marketing, there is an increasing need to “integrate the entire livestock commodity chain
from input suppliers, farmers, processors, and market intermediaries to consumers who may be in foreign
countries, livestock business being a market oriented business. Marketing aspect of livestock is important
because animal products are transient, and they may perish after some time. Transient commodities carry along
with them transient information. Information is required about prices and trends, and quality, food and bio-safety
and consumer assurance. Marketing involves “tracing back at various levels, farm, processor, market
intermediary, packager and ultimately exporting country. The use of ICT is essential to implement a trace back
system”. ICT is therefore required to efficiently manage this information to ensure that the commodities are
disposed of as and when necessary (Barton and Reynolds, 1996; Morton and Matthewman, 1995).
Capacity development is required to explore the potential of livestock production by smallholders and
other stakeholders across the entire livestock commodity chain, which also includes service providers,
processors, market intermediaries, and consumers, etc. Stakeholders in the livestock system have a duty to
spread these innovations in the commodity chain. Information and communication technologies: computers,
internet and mobile phones among others will be critical in creating and maintaining this innovation system.
All around Nigeria, there is some consciousness that ICT will benefit farmers and other members of the
agricultural innovation system. At the institutional levels such as the universities and other corporate bodies, this
consciousness has resulted to some projects. Apart from utilizing computer based approaches in teaching and
learning, there is some expression of consciousness about the use of video clips, simulation and digital models
have been used in the pedagogy of veterinary and animal science education. Unlike in India Okoro, Chikaire,
Anyoha and Ejiogu-Okereke (2011) and Meera, Thamtan and Rao (2004) have said that there is no report of ICT
being utilized in distance learning in the veterinary and animal science education in Nigeria. A major aspect of
ICT capacity building for smallholder farmers is informal and non-formal learning. A typical example of use of
ICT for rural development is M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation's (MSSRF) Information Villages,
Gyandoot and Warana Project, among others, in India. There exist similar projects in Nigeria such as Fantsuan
Foundation in Nigeria (Orakpo, 2012). These organizations have various frameworks for structuring and
generating information for their clients, such as research or development institutions or individuals using
websites, radios, telephones, extension agents and other non-government organizations.
Several studies have shown that ICT could play an important role in agricultural development. In their
demonstration on this subject, Lio and Liu (2006) showed that a microwave-radio telephone system installed in
the remote region of Tumaca, Columbia, along with community access points resulted in better trade and market
opportunities. In their own study, James (2004) reported that rural telephone and community radio services
initiated in India and Sri Lanka had received a positive response from farmer communities. The International
Institute of Communication Development (IICD) and Manobi, an African telecom company have initiated a
collaborative program to help the farmers of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Uganda and Zambia gain access to
market price information via text messages, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), or the mobile internet as well
as personal computers and personal digital assistants (PDA). Bayes (2001) has argued that the Village Phone
Program (VPP) of Grameen Bank of Bangladesh can convert telephones into production goods by lowering
transaction costs.
Although these studies suggest a significant positive contribution of ICT to development, are others
whose results call for caution. For instance, new technologies may co-exist with the old and in doing so enhance
the digital divide. Also, the opportunity cost of the resources engaged in bridging the digital divide may lead to
the neglect of the other development priorities. Despite positive disposition on use of ICT to leverage challenges
in agriculture, Mutula (2005) argues that resources utilized to bridge the digital divide would have more impact
if they were directed to meet the basic needs of the poor. Heeks (1999) mentions the question of appropriate
deployment of ICT in agriculture, arguing that it is only on this premise that investment in this regard could be
justified. Other researchers casting some doubts on the deterministic reliance on agriculture for rural
development have called for caution based on the notion that ICT is a western born technology (Nikam et al
2004; Leaning, 2005). A summary of their arguments shows that they suggest the bottom up approach that will
pay greater attention to the local needs and context rather deploying ICT with the belief that it will meet the
needs of the farmer.

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ICT and livestock farming

ICT in agriculture is a new and growing field that focuses on how agricultural and rural development activities
can be enhanced. The major question addressed is about innovative ways which ICT could be used giving the
rural nature of much of the domain in which agriculture is undertaken. This question arises because of the
awareness that advancements in ICT can aid the provision of accurate, timely, relevant information and services
to the farmers so that their activities can be more productive and remunerative. Lio and Liu (2006) have strongly
linked use of ICT with farmers’ productivity. ICT can increase farmers’ bargaining power. Good access to
information can reduce the bargaining superiority of large operators in favour of small scale farmers. With ICT
farmers can make choices about crops and livestock, create products for the niche markets and connect and sell
their products directly to consumers.
In South Africa, most local livestock data is fed into the centralized Integrated Registration and Genetic
Information System (INTERGIS) managed by the Animal Improvement Institute) National Recording and
Improvement Schemes. The role of the system is to set up national livestock productivity benchmarks to enable
comparison of genetic potential of livestock, and then provide policymakers and farmers with a reliable source of
reference (Van der Westhuize, 2003). There also exist Livestock Identification Track Bank System (LITS) in
Botswana which promotes best practices in livestock management (Burger, 2003).

ICT and farmers in Nigeria

In much of Nigeria, as it is in Ibadan particularly, farm sizes are generally small; livestock farms are even
smaller. Large scale farming is therefore not very profound. The structure of the agrarian system in Nigeria could
be considered as a major impediment for balanced rural development (Rogaly, Harris-White and Bose, 1999).
The farmers are bespectacled with a vicious cycle of land tenure obstacles, poor funding support and several
other structural and factors. As a result of these and more, the bargaining power of farmers in the input market is
not very strong with the result that farmers pay high prices for inputs thereby reducing their net earnings.
Farmers also compromise their prices due to lack of bargaining power. On the net, farmers’ incomes are reduced
due to low the capacity and incentive to increase productivity and investments. Todaro (2000) has suggested that
value addition in agriculture requires technological, institutional and price incentive changes designed to raise
the productivity of the small farms.
Given the poor conditions under which farmers conduct their business, information could be considered
one very crucial need of the farmers. At the macro level, the information cycle is imperfect. Farmers lack
relevant information they need to keep abreast of development, leading to high transaction costs, which impedes
agricultural marketing process (Dao, 2004). Kizilaslan (2006) has argued that proper dissemination of
information for agricultural and rural communities is a crucial tool in the fight against poverty and deprivation.
Information is known to have the capacity to help the poor make use of opportunities and reduce their
vulnerability to market forces. Dissemination of relevant information to communities can facilitate the effective
adoption of agricultural inputs, decision making on markets and adoption of scientific methods.

Constraints and enablers of ICT use by livestock farmers

A major challenge to agricultural development in Nigeria and other African countries has been the low level of
agricultural information exchange among the different stakeholders in the agricultural sector as a result of
limited access to current and relevant information in the form of primary documents and machine-readable
databases (Agwu and Uche-Mba 2010). There is also the lack of ICT proficiency, lack of ICT benefit awareness,
too hard to use, lack of technological infrastructure, cost of technology, trust level in the ICT system, lack of
training, system integration and software availability limit the use of ICT by farmers (Taragola and Gelb 2005).
Agwu and Uche-Mba (2010) have further listed some constraints as hindrances to the use of ICT in
agriculture in Nigeria and these constraints include: lack of confidence in operating ICT facilities such as
computers, CD ROM, lack of competence in handling ICT facilities, lack of adequate time for training on ICT
facilities, and unavailability of hard required by modern ICT. They also mentioned lack of communication
infrastructure; fear that things will go wrong in using ICT, inappropriate contents of ICT messages that do not
meet the needs of clients, poor benefits in using ICT, and others. Furthermore, they suggested other challenges
such as lack sufficient trained computer personnel, erratic and fluctuating power supply, poor finance, lack of
adequate awareness about ICT, complexity in using ICT, lack of Internet access to the rural areas, poor
communication network, nature of information provided, high cost of ICT soft ware, high cost of ICT hard ware,
negative attitude of people to change and general lack of awareness of the importance of ICT in agriculture.
There are also enabling factors such as ubiquity, low cost, ease of use and access and availability of
mobile phones and other information technologies. The mobile technology is known to be the fastest growing
technology in comparison with any, and have has also achieved the deepest penetration in human communities.
This picture is true about Nigeria where almost everyone has access to the technology.

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METHODOLOGY
Location of study and research design
The study was carried out in Ibadan in South-West region of Nigeria. Ibadan was chosen on the account of its
size, high number of farmers in the city and commercial activities that obtain therein. Apart from familiarity of
the researchers with the norms and values of the people in the area as well as a large number of livestock farmers
in the area, agriculture plays a significant role in the economy of the city. A sample survey research design was
adopted for this study, involving a systematic collection of information from selected farmers. The consensus of
opinions from the selected farmers is expected to provide answers to the research questions.

According to IWRM (2005) the farmers in Ibadan are generally less than 50 years of age, and they
have varying forms of formal education with up to 18% having tertiary education, and about 19% reporting
having no formal education. More than half of the farmers (55%) engage in farming on full time basis, and
59.0% have farmed for less than 10 years on the average. In addition to farming, the farmers also reported
engaging in other income yielding activities such as civil service, petty trading and artisanship and many of the
farmers (65%) do not belong to any farmer organization.
The target population for this study was livestock farmers in Ibadan. General information about the
population of livestock farmers in the city was extracted from International Water Resources Management (2005)
and shown in the table 1.
Table 1: Population and sampling
Livestock farm Number of farms Sample
Goat /sheep 501 124
Poultry 434 114
Cattle 53 17
Piggery 68 21
Aquaculture 200 46
Dog rearing 58 18
Total 1314 340
Source: Extracted from IWRM (2005)
Based on this information, the researchers identified the farmers’ society for each of the livestock. The
farmer’s societies are an authoritative source, where respondents (farmers) can be drawn, and there is some
guaranteed access to the registered members of the society. Members of the societies and their farms are spread
across the large city.
A proportional to size sampling method was used to decide the number of farmers to be included from
each of the livestock categories. The essence of this scheme is to eliminate the effect of differences in the
magnitudes of the number of subjects in each category in respect of the number selected as samples. The
difficulty of crisscrossing the city in search of these farmers necessitated the choice of a threshold sample of 340
livestock farmers. To execute the proportional to size sampling, the researchers multiplied this number with the
ratio of number of farmers in each livestock category to the total number of farmers.
Leaders of each of the societies were approached, and the mission of the research was explained to
them in order to obtain their cooperation. Due to long distance to farmers in the rural areas, access was the major

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factor that decided the farmers included in the study. The farmers included in the study were mainly those within
the city axes; they were larger and most likely to be owned and run by elite farmers compared with those in the
rural areas, with increased chances that they are using ICT. The researchers could not identify any societies for
pig farmers and dog rearing, but the researcher identified 14 piggery farmers and 10 dog rearers across the
metropolis.
The instrument used for data collection was a self-administered questionnaire which contained close
and open ended questions administered to the poultry farmers. The questionnaire contained open ended questions
requesting the respondents for narrations of specific experiences in using mobile phones, computers and
Internet/email to exchange agricultural information. The open ended questions helped obtain firsthand stories
from the respondents about their ICT encounter in agribusiness, and also clarify aspects of information collected
using the questionnaire. This approach was considered very necessary after preliminary observations hinted of
the difficulty of carrying out interviews due to absence of the key respondents in the farms or the tightness of
their schedules. In addition to the demographic variables, level of ICT awareness was measured by listing ICT
and respondents were asked to supply their response on a 3-level scale consisting of aware, neutral and not aware.
The same ICT were listed and respondents were asked whether or not they have used the technologies. Then the
innovations were listed and respondents’ responses on the use of these ICTs on the innovations were recorded on
a five point Likert scale.
For all respondents, the questionnaire was distributed to farmers who were literate in English, and the
researchers returned at agreed times to pick up the completed tools. For those respondents who were not literate
in English, the questionnaire was administered by the researcher reading out each question, interpreting what has
been read in Yoruba language, and helping the respondent tick the response as appropriate. The researchers also
translated the narrations of those respondents who could not write. Data collection was spread over six weeks
since the respondents were business persons, and might need sufficient time to attend to the tools.
Apart from data collected using this instrument, several visits to the farms granted the researcher a first-
hand interaction opportunity to make some observations, and also assess the ICT environment of the farmers.
The result of this observation was used to counterbalance the results of the questionnaire survey. Furthermore,
the literature provided some useful information about agriculture in the city, although the sources did not
examine issues related to ICT. Altogether, 321 of the 340 copies of the questionnaire were completed and
returned; twenty one were not usable and were discarded. Given the spread of the farmers in the very large city
of Ibadan, and the several visits the researcher had to make to reach the respondents, this response rate of 78%
was considered adequate for the survey. Although the sampling scheme adopted a probabilistic technique to
decide the number of respondents, the specific subjects elements were not selected using any probabilistic
approach. Hence the data set was not considered fit for any inferential analysis. Relationship was sought between
pairs of awareness, ICT use, use of ICT in the innovation chain, use of ICT in marketing, production, health and
procurement using Spearman’s rank correlation. This approach enabled the researchers measure the strength of
association between pairs of the variables. Chi square analysis method was further used to measure the
association between the demographic variables and the innovations; significant dimensions were further
examined using cross-tabulation to establish. The researchers synthesized the narrations in the open-ended
questions to strengthen the discussion.

Result
Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents
Table 2 presents the frequency distributions of the respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics. Of the 234
poultry farmer, males accounted for 70.2%, while 29.8% were females. Married respondents accounted for
71.4% while 23.8% were single, 2.4% separated, 1.2% divorced and 1.2% were widowed. The mean age of the
respondents was 40.28 years with a standard deviation of 11.93. Also, 67.9% of the respondents were Christians
while Muslims were 32.1%.

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Table 2: Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents

Variable Measurement Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 210 70.2
Female 90 29.8
Marital status Married 214 71.4
Single 71 23.8
Separated 7 2.4
Divorced 4 1.2
Widowed 4 1.2
Age 19-24yrs 11 3.6
25-39yrs 55 18
31-34yrs 34 10.8
35-39yrs 34 10.8
40-44yrs 44 14.4
45-49yrs 37 16.8
>50yrs 75 24
Experience (years) 1-5yrs 143 46.7
6-10yrs 89 29.7
10-15yrs 39 13.2
>15yrs 29 9.6
Farm size (plots) 1-6 235 78.6
7- 12 32 10.7
13-18 11 3.6
>18 22 7.2
Highest level of education Primary 15 4.8
Secondary 32 11
Polytechnic/College of Education 111 37
University 142 47.2
Formal qualification/training Yes 96 32.1
No 204 67.9
The mean number of years of experience in farming is 8.13 with the largest number of farmers having
been in the business in the last 1-5 years experience (46.7%) and the lowest (9.6%) being people who have been
in the business 15 years and above. With 78.6% of the respondents having their farms on 1-6 plot of land (an
acre equivalent) the farm sizes could be regard as relatively small. Farm sizes were 7-12 plots (10.7%) followed;
3.6% have three acres of land while 7.2% of the respondents own more than 3 acres. Respondents with
university education have the highest percentage (47.6%), followed by those with polytechnic qualification
(23.8%), 13.1% attended the colleges of education, 10.7% attended secondary school and 4.8% have primary
school qualification. Most of the respondents (67.9%) had no formal qualifications in agriculture.

ICT awareness and use

The level of ICT awareness among the livestock farmers was examined by asking respondents to tick as
applicable to them their level of awareness about the different categories of ICT listed in the questionnaire.
Figure 1 shows a very high percentage of the respondents (95.2%) reporting awareness of mobile phones while
some of the respondents (57.1%) were aware of the computer. Also, 85.7% of the respondents were aware about
radio as an information source, while 4.8% were not; 9.5% were neutral. A large number (84.5 %) were aware of
television, 4.8% were not and 10.7% were neutral. Awareness of print media was reported by 59.5% agreed also
to being aware of print media, while only 45.2% were aware of the Internet. A relatively low number of
respondents (45.2%) reported being aware of the Internet. The lowest level of awareness (28.6%) was reported
for wireless technologies, while none of the farmers reported being aware of websites.

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Which of the ICT reported above were used by the farmers? Figure 1 also presents the analysis on this
question. The highest number of respondents (95.2%) used mobile phones, followed by radio (75.0%), television
(51.2%), computer (42.9%), and print media (35.7%). ICT’s with the lowest use evidence are the Internet
(26.2%), email (26.2%), farming software (16.7%), website (14.3%), and wireless (8.3%) and PDA (3.6%).

ICT in the livestock innovation chain

The mean values of responses on use of ICT in the innovation chain were taken, as shown in table 5. Table 5
shows that marketing (Mean=4.78, SD=1.11) has the highest mean value of ICT use. Marketing related activities
namely sales (Mean=4.65, SD=2.88) and procurement (Mean= 4.44, SD=2.91) also have high mean use values.
Table 3: Means of use of ICT in the livestock innovation chain
Innovation links Mean SD
Marketing 4.78 1.11
Production 2.66 1.90
Health 3.49 2.01
Procurement 4.44 2.91
Sales 4.65 2.88
Table 5 also conveys that production (Mean= 2.66, SD=1.90) and health (Mean=3.49, SD=2.01) have the lowest
mean use values.

Relationship between ICT use, awareness, and use in the innovation chain
The correlation matrix in Table 4 shows how pairs of ICT use, awareness, and use in the innovation chain are
correlated. The highest correlation (r=0.86) exists between ICT use and awareness about ICT use in livestock
farming as well as between awareness and marketing.

Table 4: Correlation between ICT use, awareness, and use in the innovation chain
Awareness ICT use Use in.. Marketing Production Health Proc. Sales
Awareness 1
ICT use 0.83 1
Use in… 0.86 0.62 1
Marketing 0.81 0.73 0.78 1
Production 0.16 0.23 0.32 0.02 1
Health 0.13 0.32 0.37 0.29 0.03 1
Procurement 0.66 0.43 0.55 0.43 0.09 0.02 1
Sales 0.63 0.74 0.88 0.84 0.02 0.11 0.71 1
The result also suggests that sales has high correlation with awareness, ICT use, ICT use in the innovation chain,
marketing and procurement, but very low values with production, health, issues and procurement have very low
correlation with all other variables.

Demographic characteristics of farmers Vs. ICT use in the innovation chain

What is the relationship between ICT use in the innovation chain and the demographic characteristics of the

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respondents? Table 5 shows a Chi square analysis addressing this question.

Table 5: Chi Square analysis of ICT use in the innovation chain by demographic characteristics
Demographics Marketing Production Health Procurement Sales
Chi Square values
Gender 19.180 4.176** 12.001 2.113 7.230
Marital status 5.998 14.751 2.991 12.347 17.309
Age 1.111 4.601 0.909 12.000 16.313
HEQ 1.198 11.001 13.092** 20.290 7.159
Experience 15.108** 14.01 14.290 12.897 19.300**
Formal qualification 4.188 9.966 18.022** 0.007 8.006
Farm size 0.100 12.121** 129.020** 6.891 13.290
**=significant at 5% level
Gender and HEQ were significantly associated with health and procurement respectively. Experience
was significantly associated with marketing and sales, while formal qualification and farm size were significant
in term of their relationship with marketing, and health issues. The significant results were cross-examined to
uncover the underlying explanations.

Figure 2 shows that 67.21% of those who reported using ICT for production purposes were males.
Also, 65.32% of those who reported using ICT for health related purposes were people that also reported having
polytechnic/university education. Those who have been farming over fifteen years ago (35.17%) and those who
started farming five years ago (32.65%) used ICT for marketing the most. Furthermore, 56.72% of the farmers
who used ICT to meet health needs of their livestock also reported having formal training in livestock farming,
while 62% and59,55% respondent with farm sizes larger than 13 plots also reported using the technologies for
production and health matters respectively.

Relevance of ICT to livestock farming

On a scale of 1 = lowest to 5 = highest, respondents were asked to rate the relevance of ICT in their farming
businesses. Since the responses are ordinal mean scores are used to measure the power of the intersection
between innovation activity and the livestock type. The expectation is that mean score less than 2.5 could be
considered low while higher values could indicate higher likelihood that farmers would utilize ICT to meet the
innovation activity.
Table 6: Mean score of relevance of ICT in livestock innovation chain
Livestock farming Marketing Production Animal health Procurement Sales
Goat /sheep 2.78 2.13 3.16 2.17 2.09
Poultry 4.34 2.33 4.16 3.22 4.39
Cattle 2.01 2.14 2.24 2.15 2.02
Piggery 2.19 2.23 2.45 2.12 2.34
Aquaculture 3.26 2.41 3.22 2.33 4.19
Dog rearing 2.33 2.52 3.16 3.01 3.22
Table 9 shows that poultry farming has the highest mean score (4.34) with marketing in comparison
with other livestock farming activities, while cattle has the least (2.01). With relevance of ICT in production
having mean score less than 2.5 for all livestock, it could be concluded that the farmers do not consider the use
of ICT for this innovation very highly. The farmers reported a high relevance of ICT in poultry health (4.16) than
they did for other livestock; but they also reported that ICT is highly relevant for aquaculture (3.22), dog rearing
(3.16) and goat rearing (3.16). With mean score less than 2.5, the relevance of ICT to piggery and cattle was

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somewhat low. Except for poultry (3.22) and dog rearing (3.01) where the relevance of ICT was high, the
relevance of ICT in innovations in the other livestock generally below the median level. For sales, the relevance
of ICT in poultry (4.39), aquaculture THE SUe (4.19) and dog rearing (3.22) is very high; but low for the other
livestock (<2.5).

Discussion of findings
The focus of this study is to address the question of whether livestock farmers in Ibadan metropolis use ICT in
the livestock innovation chain, and for what purposes. Data was collected from 300 livestock farmers. A cursory
observation as well as secondary evidence from IWRM shows that poultry and goat/sheep rearing constitute the
major livestock farming undertaken by livestock farmers in Ibadan, cattle farming constituting the lowest.
Generally, goat/sheep and poultry are obviously the easiest livestock to rise; they could be raised in relative large
scale at the “backyard” with less expertise. Moreover, the expertise support required to manage the animals
appears to be most available.
Based on interactions with the respondents during data collection, there was some enthusiasm to know
how ICT could be used to promote their business much more than the readiness to participate in the survey. The
respondents that actually gave time to complete the narrative aspect of the questionnaire actually did so because
the researchers first explained to them why they actually need to participate in the study. Except a few relatively
large farms, many of the farms were actually small in size. It was the case that the large farms had more staff,
better office spaces and coordinated work environment than the small farms which were either located inside or
very close to living houses. The large farms were powered by generators, when necessary. The researchers
actually saw computers in just a few of seven of farms visited, although all the individuals encountered during
the visits had mobile phones. Usually installing information technology facilities would require safe environment
and power personnel, among others.
The number of male farmers in this present study is slightly higher than that in the study of IWRM
(2005), but the number of married farmers is however much less than that reported by IWRM. With mean of age
of about 40 years, it would appear that this present study indicates the participation of younger persons in
farming than did the study of IWRM. Remarkably also over 84% reported that they have tertiary education, a
finding that is by far higher than that of IWRM. An average farming experience (in years) and a very large
number of respondents joining the business in the last 1-5 years as well as a large number of farmers aged 25-39,
this result suggests that younger persons have joined the profession since 2005. These differences may also be
accounted for by either differences in sample size or periods of study, or even the concentration of the present
study in the urban area of the city. The difference between the large number of respondents with tertiary
education and those who reported having formal training in agriculture indicates a high number of farmers who
have no formal training in agriculture.
Almost all the farmers have knowledge of the use of mobile telephones as at, and about eight out of ten
knowing about radio and television. This pattern of response is recurrent in many studies both in urban and rural,
and, institutional studies (Nwagwu 2007). Mobile phones are the technologies of the present society. Its
portability, cheapness, ease of use and accessibility couple with their multitasking capabilities make it the most
useful information technology today. Even the ill-educated can use it, at least to receive calls. Radios have
unique qualities, and its mention in this study might even refer to radios embedded in mobile telephones. Radios
are portable and can operate on batteries. Radio signals are also generously available just as many community
radios stations are beginning to be created. Unlike mobile telephones anyway, radios are just a one way
communication system which only enables the user to receive information. It is also lacking in the multimedia
facilities that make mobile phones the deepest penetrating technology of all time. None of the respondents
reported any awareness about website at all, and those who reported awareness about farming software and email
are very few. In a sense, websites and farming software are by far advanced information technologies compared
with mobile phones. How does one understand the relationship between pairs of awareness, use of ICT, use of
ICT in the innovation chain and the innovations? Awareness about ICT may trigger off use of the technology
generally, but the tendency for use in marketing is very high. Awareness of ICT does not seem to relate strongly
with health – ICT use in health may require a high level of enlightenment as well as high skill level including
using higher and more sophisticated technologies. The very high correlation between ICT use and marketing and
sales may also be explicated on the ground that the farmers desiring to dispose products at the right time. The
low correlation between health, production and procurement may mean that the farmers require some
enlightenment to the effect that they could achieve more than marketing using ICT. In respect of production, it
could be speculated that only a few farms, mainly the very large ones or those that have expertise in production,
may need to use the technology for the purpose. Generally, except in relation to marketing and related activities
such as sales and procurement, relationship between awareness and, use of ICT with other purposes such as
production appears very low.
Besides personal use of these technologies, the researchers did not identify any cooperative activities

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that could lead to improved use of the technologies for the purpose of livestock farming. Besides mass texts
which all the associations use to invite or remind the farmers of meetings, there are no information systems for
disseminating information among the farmers or for accomplishing other tasks such as lifelong learning. The
major consequence of this observation is that linkages exist among the farmers only at individual levels.
Initiatives such as those between International Institute of Communication Development (IICD) and Manobi, to
help the farmers gain access to market price information via text messages. There is also no project such as the
Village Phone Program (VPP) of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh which could enable the farmers convert their
heavy access and use of telephones into business advantages. Those who have been farming for more than
fifteen years might have greater command of the market and also have control of the business generally, and this
might translate for their advantage in marketing using ICT. For those who came into the business only in the last
five years, their success in using ICT for marketing their products might not be unassociated with increasing
revolution in ICT.
The responses to the open-ended question turned spice to the findings of the study; they are categorised
and as follows.

The mobile phones

Managing animal health
The first and most common set of narratives came from farmers who have used mobile phones to achieve
management of animal health challenges through connecting their vet consultants and other knowledgeable
persons. Generally, veterinary doctors appeared open-minded in prescribing drugs for their clients using mobile
technology, probably endorsing the reality of mobile animal health. Their responses are very apt: “Four of my
pigs gave birth at the same time and one of them was very weak, I had to put her children with another pig for
fostering. The foster mother was not producing enough milk so I used my phone to call the veterinary doctor and
he told me to give her estrogen and she started lactating well afterwards”. “There was a day that my birds were
sick and I don’t know which drug to give them. I called my vet doctor and she told me the drug to give them.
Fortunately I had the drug in the farm, but if I had not called the doctor, I wouldn’t have known that I can use the
drug to cure that particular disease”. “I used mobile phone one day when I was faced with bird diseases and
didn’t know what to use and my doctor made prescription for me”.
Like the foregoing testimonies, another farmer narrated how he used the technology to connect with his
vet who instructed him on what to do to prevent his rabbits from having still births. Yet another respondent
narrated that he used the phone to link up with his vet who was far away on a journey, but the vet linked him
with another vet who rescued the farmer from serious health crisis of the animals. A synthesis of these
testimonies show that mobile technologies are leading in information technology applications in animal health
management, and applications transcend almost all aspects of animal health needs: drug prescription, drug
administration, maternal challenges and disease management, etc. the study did not inquire whether the
communication was by text messages or calls, and this is because the whole, study focused on information
technology use generally. No mention was made of other technologies.

Linking customers
Linking with customers is another benefit of the technology which many farmers were happy to narrate. “The
use of mobile phone helps me to communicate with customers effectively. They call me for supply and solution
to problems they face when rearing their birds and I also respond immediately. It has helped my family business
greatly”. “Mobile phone has strongly been a great and useful instrument in communicating with my customers
and other farmers, information is easily gotten whenever a seminar about a new product is about to be introduced
to the poultry farmers”. This testimony relates to how information technologies could be used to enable more
experienced farmers, and probably farmers in large farms, provide advice to younger farmers. Apart from short-
cutting the bill of the vet, this use of the technology could strengthen the relationship among the farmers, and
promote horizontal learning. Learning from peers and colleagues has great advantages.

Remote managing of farms

Some of the farmers who probably have other businesses or are engaged in other activities that keep them away
from their farms, mobile phones have helped them maintain contact with their workers thus promoting efficient
farm management. According to one of such persons: “I contacted my workers on the farm to know the state of
things so that in case there was any problem, I could think of how to solve it even before getting to the farm”.

Marketing
Many of the respondents also narrated how mobile phones have helped them market their products through
contacting their customers when their goods are ready. This testimony is an example: “I was with no money and
I have pigs that I could sell on the farm, I used my mobile phone to call a customer and he came and purchased

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the pigs and I had money to spend. “Mobile phone has helped me in the area of marketing, information
collection/gathering from farming organisations and customers”. “Mobile phone has strongly been a great and
useful instrument in communicating with my customers and other farmers, information is easily gotten such as
whenever a seminar about a new product is about to be introduced to the poultry farmers”
This finding relates to the object of a project by Information Development Network in Nigeria in which
rural women were enlightened on how mobile connection could assist them link with their clients in the cities.
By this approach, the rural women testified that they were able to sell their wares at their own time and negotiate
prices ahead of time. Even buyers who visit rural communities from the cities are able to minimize wasteful trips
which were often undertaken with the belief that the goods are available in the rural areas.

General uses
Some farmers merely expressed knowledge of how mobile phones could help their businesses and not
necessarily how they have used it; their opinions were also very indicative of the important roles of mobile
phones in agribusiness. They said that mobile phones could help them market their goods, manage their farms,
monitor the performance and activities of farm workers. “It helps me to monitor prices of farm inputs and
products in the market”. Some expressed good knowledge about how the phone could be used to contact
stakeholders such as feedmill for the supply of feed, contact customers and manage time: “I can use it when I
have a problem getting some stuff and I want to get in touch with friends that have ideas about issues”. “It could
help me communicate, to receive information on necessary advice on the poultry feeds and marketing research”.
“The use of mobile phone saves time, reduces my expenditure and increases my performance and productivity”.
Matotay, Furuholt, (2012) has also demonstrated empirically how mobile technology has aided the operations of
livestiock farmers in Tanzania.
Some farmers reported knowledge of the possibility that mobiles could help reduce cost of going to
meet customers, who they rather would call by mobile phones. According to some of the farmers: “mobile phone
is one of the cheapest and quickest means of communication” and “[it] makes connecting people easy for me in
my poultry business”. The number of farmers who mentioned any negative aspects of the use of the technology
was very few and their observation was either in relation to “poor connections and high cost of phone bills” or
the opinion of this respondents who said that “The only problem atimes is network failure”.

The computers
Feed formulation
Probably suggesting that computers appeared to be hitec to agribusiness people in comparison with the mobile
phones, one the farmers said that he used computers for “Feed formulation and also knowing the financial
position of the farm”, “I use computers for the computation of feed formulas”, “I use computers in feed
compounding and to compute for optimization”, “It gives us the actual composition of the feed i.e energy
composition, protein fibre and fat”. This farmer was reporting from one of the largest large farms in the study.

Knowledge management
Some of the respondents also reported that they used the computers for research purposes: “The use of computer
improves my technical know-how, reduces stress and fatigue and gives me proper documentation.” “Use in
researching of information on effect and solution to poultry disease.” Apart from those who reported using the
computers for research, others used it for records, documentation and preparing of documents. The responses: “It
has made sales documentation and purchases easier”, “It helps in keeping proper day to day activities, income
and expenditure of the farm for improved production” and “The use has aided operation and decision making
process” are apt in these regards. A respondent indicated clearly that he used the computer for publicity purpose,
and “I have only used it to produce my handbills”.

Internet/Email
Further, some of the respondents reported their use of the Internet when asked questions about computers. This
might suggest that the farmers purchased the computers probably because they would want to have Internet
access or that they used the computers only for Internet related purposes. “I easily download new ways of
solving some poultry problems whenever I do not wish to discuss with my vet doctor or a farmer friend”.”I get
information from the website on different questions, for example feed formula, diseases and control”. “I visit
some websites to gather information, for example, it was from a site that I got the right mix required for poultry
feeds”.
Only a very few respondents reported using email, and their responses at best showed that the farmers
have some knowledge about email and that they probably used it elsewhere and not necessarily in their farms.
Based on the names of the farms that reported having used the technology, it could also be inferred that they
were from owners of somewhat large farms, or persons who are relatively very highly educated: “I get to share

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my experience with others on any problem which has been encountered in the course of farm work”. “I was able
to assess some foreign partners in terms of advice and also relevant information on the farm operations are
exchanged via email”. “It has provided a means of reaching out to customers who are far away without much
travel expenses”. “The use of email gets me global connection and improves my knowledge in things happening
on the globe”. There few experiences showed that the personal experiences of the farmers with the technology
probably came from either industrial, highly educated or technology conscious farmers.
Others reported using email to improve communication with suppliers and buyers of their farm products,
advice co-farmers, acquire more knowledge, update personal knowledge in poultry keeping and help in
circulation of information among colleagues. Many of the respondents were either not conversant with email, did
not use email or did not use email for farming purposes.

Implications of this study for policy and practice

A very high level of awareness about use of mobile telephone for information exchange could translate to need
for policies directed at using this technology to provide information to farmers, particularly in relation to
production and health, aspects that may require rigorous training. Using telephone to make calls to veterinary
doctors and other experts to get information for meeting immediate needs is important, but channeling the use of
these technologies to achieving impartation of knowledge in the farmers could be more advantageous. In line
with trends in other aspects of life, information systems aimed at delivering information to farmers should be
more mobile driven than being computer based. Also a very high level of awareness about use of television and
radio draws policymakers to the continued relevance of these media in lifelong learning. Radio and television
have common limitations namely they are one communication way technologies that do not permit immediate
feedback from listeners. Also their use could be limited by challenges of poor electric power supply. A major
approach that could be adopted to address the challenge of one way communication is to design a programme
that combines mobile technology with radio and TV programmes. Participants and listeners to radio or television
programmes could use mobile technologies to send in their questions either by calls or SMS.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Like in most countries, veterinary education adopts the traditional approaches of providing education for
regular students in institutions and start providing veterinary education and learning through mobile
technology-based open and distance learning strategies. Apart from enlarging the number of persons who
acquire animal management skill and increasing the field of veterinarians and livestock professionals, this
approach could be cheap to run, and also affordable to the farmers and other rural dwellers. The challenge
however, is how to design appropriate software technologies to drive the information, how to manage the
limitations of the mobile technology itself such as the smallness of the keypad, the emerging SMS syntax,
among others.
The obvious advantages of ICT to individual, rural and smallholder communities in managing,
marketing and acquiring new knowledge about livestock are apt. But this will require appropriate policies on
livestock production/research and development, telecommunication, rural development, education, information
management and governance. ICT will be very useful to promote information use, community mobilization and
building partnerships across the innovation system individual farmers and veterinary and animal health care
providers.
The outstanding role of mobile technologies raises the need to seek for innovative ways of utilizing the
technology which is becoming cheaper and more available. Nwagwu (2007) demonstrated how SMS could
enable farmers collect price information from the urban communities to check the activities of middlemen who
buy their goods at cheap prices and sell them in the city at higher prices. SMS could also be very helpful in terms
of linking buyers in the cities with producers in the rural communities. A project LINKS, has demonstrated how
this methodology could be used to harmonise prices of goods in Eastern Africa. A limitation of the SMS
technology, namely that of allowing only 160 characters per single message can be overcome by the instant
messaging nature of SMS. Hence, a texter can exchange many messages within a short time.

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