Assessment of Plantain Farmer's Use of Information and Communication Technology in Yenagoa and Ogbia Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State

The study examined assessment of plantain farmers’ use of Information and Communication Technology in Yenagoa and Ogbia Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State. The study was designed to describe the socio-economic characteristics of plantain farmers, examine level of awareness of plantain farmers toward the use of ICT, determine the usefulness of ICT to farmers and identify factors affecting ICT usage by plantain farmers. Five (5) communities were selected from each of the Local Government Areas making a total of ten (10) communities which were Otueke, Otuosega, Oruema, Oberema Abobiri, Swali, Akaba, Fangbe, Onura and Oje and twelve (12) plantain farmers were selected from each community, making a total of one hundred and twenty (120) plantain farmers were selected. Five percent traction was be used to select respondent from each community using purposive sampling technique. The structured questionnaire and interview schedule was used to elicit information from the respondents. The data collected were analyzed using frequency, mean, percentage while hypotheses were tested by the use of simple regression analysis. The results showed that majority of the respondents (41.7%) were between ages 21-30, 28.5% completed only primary education, 41.9% were married and 21.7% indicated farming and self-employed. the hypotheses there was no significant relationship between plantain farmers’ socio-economic characteristics and ICT usage except marital status. The result revealed that age (r= 0.041; P <0.05), educational qualification (r=0.010; P <0.05), occupation (r=0.045; P<0.05) and household size (r=0.18; P<0.05), all exhibited positive but insignificant relationship with ICT usages while marital status revealed a positive but significant relationship. The study recommends that Government should make good effort to establish modern ICT facilities in public places, especially schools, where the teachers could have access to learn and facilitate other learners, affordability and accessibility of ICT facilities should be available to plantain farmers by both government and non-government agencies in the country.