ASSESSMENT OF RURAL YOUTH INVOLVEMENT IN THE USAGE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICTs) AMONG FARMERS’ IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

This study assessed rural youth involvement in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in agriculture in Osun State, Nigeria. Specifically, it examined awareness and analysed attitude of rural youths in the use of ICTs to disseminate agricultural information. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select one hundred and twenty respondents for the study. The data were collected using structured interview schedule and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The mean age of respondents was 18.0 years. Also, 71.7 percent of the respondents scored high in ICTs awareness in relation to agriculture. Telephone (56.0%) was commonly used as a mean of passing agricultural information among the youths and the level of computer/literacy was slightly above average (58.3). Result of the correlation analysis shows that there was a positive and significant relationship (r =0.481; p> 0.05) between the awareness of the usage of ICTs in agriculture and their attitude toward the use of ICTs. The study therefore concluded among others, that rigorous awareness on the inportance of ICTs in farming should be created among youths in Osun State in order enhance and bring about positive solutions to agricultural development stakeholders efforts in combating food insecurity in Nigeria.