ACCESS TO INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AMONG RURAL WOMEN AND YOUTHS IN AGRICULTURE IN ABIA STATE, NIGERIA

The study ascertained access to information communication technologies (ICTs) among rural women and youths in agriculture. One hundred and twenty respondents’ in Abia, State, Nigeria, who were purposively selected, constituted the sample size for the study. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and interview schedule by the researcher and other research assistants. Simple descriptive statistics such as percentage, standard deviation and mean scores were used for data analysis and result presentation. Findings of the study revealed that the majority of the respondents’ had access to radio (91.7% women and 96.7% youths), television (91.7% women, 93.3% youths), and GSM (80.0% women, 85.0% youths). Respondents’ indicated that radio
were the ICTs mostly accessible to them for obtaining agricultural information in the area. The study recommended that there is a need to address policies that bother on ICTs infrastructural development in rural areas and develop appropriate ICTs that work within the farmers’ local environment to increase rural women and youths connectivity to modern ICTs for communicating agricultural information among stakeholders.