INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICTS) FOR

AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT: THE ROLE OF YOUTHS

By

YEKINNI, Oyedeji Taofeeq

Agricultural Economics and Extension Department,

Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, PMB 4000, Ogbomoso

and

ALAKA, Fatai A.

…. Department, Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo

Abstract

The challenges facing agriculture in developing countries represent effects of

globalisation on the enterprises. Digital divide between the developed and
developing countries constitute the source of disparity in the performance of the
sector among the countries; hence the need for adoption of ICTs in the
developing countries. The study pursued the need to use youths in the
implementation of ICT strategy for agricultural development in Nigeria stating
their unique characteristics that make them qualify for the job. It highlighted the
extent of availability of ICT infrastructures in Nigeria; propose way of using the
facility for rural development; and suggest ways of including youths in the
strategy to enable them participate in community development. The study
recommended adequate basic education for the youths to make them ready for
civic responsibilities.

Key words: ICT, youths, agricultural and rural development, Nigeria

Introduction/Problem Statement
In recent years, new sets of challenges are emerging for agricultural production
and management activities in developing countries, which are manifested in form
of the exponential increase in the demand for food and fibre, issues regarding the
continuous introduction of new pests and diseases, issues of cost of farm and
domestic energy requirements, value added concerns in exported agricultural
products, the phytosanitary requirements for exported agricultural products, the
realities of challenges inherent in World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s policy on
trade in agricultural products among other issues. These issues constitute the
burden of globalisation on the agricultural management and practices in these
countries.

Given the fact that information revolution brought about globalisation, information
utilisation or application is believed to hold the solution to the challenges of
globalisation in whatever form they are manifested. According to CTA (2000),
efficient information dissemination remains the key to bridge the gap between the
developed and underdeveloped countries. This is part of the challenge that
confronts the development actors and stakeholders in developing countries.
However, the development specialists are yet to adapt the appropriate
agricultural and rural development strategies to accommodate the changes
brought by globalisation (Antoine, 2000).

According to UNDP (2001), the use of Information Communication Technologies

in development programming is not new. In 2000 however, it assumed a new
prominence, when the United Nations and G8 group of industrialised countries
flagged off Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD)
as a global development priority. Since then, the understanding of ICTD as a
core development issue has been rapidly evolving. It has been argued that the
problem of underdevelopment is attributable to the inability of a large portion of
the world’s population to access and effectively use ICTs and the potential
benefits they enable. In fact, “the Digital Divide, being the disparities between the
‘connected’ and the ‘unplugged’, is really a reflection of the age-old divides of
poverty, education, and restricted human choices” (UNDP, 2001).

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Objectives

The general objective of this write up is to highlight the role of the youths in the
implementation of ICT use for agricultural and rural development. It is also meant
to mention the following sub-objectives

1. To highlight the extent of availability of ICT infrastructures and services in

Nigeria

2. To propose ways of opportunity for rural communities to improve their

capacity for decision-making on development issues by increasing their
access to information through the use of new ICTs;

3. To suggest strategy to circumvent the rural people’s barrier of illiteracy to

the use of new ICTs by using the youths as the human interface between
them and the equipments.

4. To enable the youth to participate in community development;

ICT in Nigeria

A major indicator of infrastructural requirement for digital ICT use is Teledensity. It

is a measure of the penetration of telephone lines within a territory. Nigeria’s
teledensity has grown from near zero at the turn of the millennium to about 8% in
just four years. This shows a geometric increase in the availability of the facility to
the extent that Nigeria is now officially the largest growth market for
telecommunication in Africa and the Middle East (NCC, 2005). In the same vein,
as shown in table 1.1 below, there is progressive increase in the number of
people using Internet in Nigeria facilitated through the enhanced teledensity
status.

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 Fig. 1.1: Telephone Penetration in Nigeria

Source: NCC (2005)

However, there has not been optimal deployment of these facilities to various
sectors and hence the benefit has not been optimal. Although “individual access
is scarce, private cyber cafés and public call offices have become a regular
feature of the modern African city” (Bertolini, 2004). Specifically, some of the new
digital communication facilities such as computers, computer networking (Local
Area Network-LAN and Wide Area Network-WAN), CD-ROM technology, GSM
and the Internet have been in use widely in Nigeria. The situation has brought a
significant challenge to the development actors in the country, who have to
contend with the socioeconomic and political dimensions that have altered the
balance between rural and urban economies (Antoine, 2000).

Table 1.1: Growth of the Nigerian Telecoms Industry

Source: NCC (2005)

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Hardware Enabling Factors

This concerns issues regarding the availability of the ICT facilities/infrastructures

not minding the ICT content issues. The following issues discussed below assess
the situation in the country, from both public and private circumstances, to
ascertain the readiness of adoption of the ICT facilities.

National Information Technology (IT) Policy – In March 2001, the Federal

Government of Nigeria approved a National IT Policy and implementation started
in April 2001 with the establishment of the National Information Technology
Development Agency (NITDA), charged with the implementation responsibility.
The policy recognised the private sector as the driving engine of the IT sector.
Emphasis is to be laid on development of National Information Infrastructure
Backbone (NIIB) as well as the Human Resources Development. In addition,
Information Technology equipments/parts are to be developed in Abuja and in
each of the six geo-political zones (NITDA, 2003). Specifically, the policy
recognised agriculture as one of the areas of attention for IT adoption;

The nation shall use IT to re-engineer agriculture for the purposes of

maximizing food production, improving food self-sufficiency and security,
increasing output for industrial raw material utilization, providing
employment, economic growth, and minimising environmental abuse
and degradation.
Information Technology (IT) will also be used to facilitate the following regarding
agricultural development agenda.

 Establishing an agricultural information system to provide support for

planning, production, storage, and distribution of horticultural crops,
livestock, and fisheries products

 Creating IT awareness for all types of farmers at all levels nationwide.

The National Telecommunication policy for instance has the following as

its strategies:

1. Government shall encourage the provision of the elaborate infrastructure

required to have fast and reliable Internet access through institutional and
private sector participation.

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 2. Government shall encourage the development of Internet content that will
promote the Social, economic and political development of Nigeria.

3. Government shall continue to closely monitor the emerging applications of

the Internet in areas … and enact the appropriate legislation and incentives
that will encourage their use to promote rapid socio-economic development.

4. Government shall promote the use of Internet in health, agriculture,

education and research, and encourage private sector participation in this
project.

Public Sector Information Technology (IT) Infrastructural Development

Projects - Federal Government of Nigeria, according to NCC (2005), signed a
contract with China Great Wall Industry Cooperation (CGWIC) for the design,
manufacture and launch of the Nigerian Communication Satelite-1
(NIGCOMSAT-1). The aim of the project is to provide an opportunity for the
country to receive a sizeable portion of capital flow paid by African countries for
their international telephone traffic. Other intended benefits include the need to
bridge the digital divide, and launch the Nigerian economy into the information
age. NIGCOMSAT-1 plans to have coverage over Africa and Europe, and is
expected to be launched in December 2006.

In the same vein, the Nigerian NITEL owns 7% of the USD$80m SAT3
submarine fibre optic and has commercially activated public access to this
continental telecoms link in May 2003. SAT3 connects several African countries
to each other and terminates at Portugal. Currently NITEL has sold about a
quarter of SAT3 capacity to large oil companies, ISPs and other telecom
operators who are using it for wholesale Internet and international voice traffic.

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 Fig. 1.2:

Source: Mobolaji (2004)

According to NITDA (2003), Nigerian government has commenced the building of

National Information Infrastructure Backbone (NIIB), State Information
Infrastructure Backbone (SIIB) and Local Information Infrastructure Backbone
(LIIB). These are in preparation for full take-off of the e-government programme.
Rural Internet Resource Centres and Mobile Internet Units have been
established for accelerating ICT diffusion into the rural areas.

In the third quarter of 2004, the Nigerian Government announced the details of a
National Rural Telephony Programme (NRTP), which proposes to connect
500,000 new lines in 343 local government areas within twelve months. The
programme has an investment of N28 billion (USD200 million) provided as a
concessionary loan from the Chinese government, and a matching grant of N2.8
billion from the Federal Government. The three contractors to the project are:

1. Rural Radio Systems (RRS), which will provide services to 125

Local Government Areas (LGAs),

2. Alcatel Shanghai Bell (ASB) covering 108 local governments, and

3. ZTE, which will cover 110 LGAs.

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The project is already off to a good start, as equipment worth USD$23m ordered
by Alcatel Shanghai Bell (ASB) for NRTP arrived in the Lagos port from China in
February 2005. The equipment included switching systems, transmission
systems and cables ready for installation (NCC, 2005).

Power Supply Situation – the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) has
concluded all arrangements for the privatisation of the incumbent electric power
operator, NEPA. The firm is now Power Holding Company (PHC) out of which 18
companies are expected to emerge. According to Mobolaji (2004), the NEPA
currently uses the SAT3 cable system and has begun a phase-wise national fibre
optics cable system to facilitate effective power distribution in the country. The
figure below illustrates the project plan;

Fig.
1.3:

Source: Mobolaji (2004)

The power supply status, will no doubt, affect the operation environment of the
private sector in the information technology. Apart from this, regular power supply
is equally a major factor for accessing the ICTs at the audiences’ ends.

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Private Sector Information Technology (IT) Infrastructural Development
Projects

The Honourable Minister for Communications, in late 2004, announced that

private investment in the Nigerian telecoms sector has grown from US$50 million
to over US$6 billion over the past four years. It is generally believed that a
significant amount of the telecoms investments has been generated within the
country (NCC, 2005).

Fig. 1.5:

Source: NCC

According to NCC (2005), the following constitute some of the declared the
private investments in the telecommunication sector within the last four years.

 Globacom, in February 2003, awarded a €675m turnkey contract to

French vendor Alcatel, for the installation of 1 million mobile lines,
100,000 fixed lines, 3 international gateways, and a national fibre-optic
backbone. It equally awarded a US$200m contract to Siemens, for
network installation in Northern Nigeria at the same period.

 In November 2003, MTN obtained a US$395m facility from a syndicate

of 14 Nigerian banks, led by Stanbic Bank, and Standard Chartered
(London), as part of its USD$1.3m capital expenditure budget. It equally
obtained another US$250m facility from a bank consortium led by GTB

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 in October 2004, for network infrastructure. MTN also declared an
expenditure of USD$620m on capital expenses incurred by its Nigerian
operation between March and September 2004. The amount was spent
mainly to build 344 base stations and 6 switches.

 US$120m equipment finance deal between LM Ericsson and Vmobile in

2003, for the installation of a north/south transmission backbone.
Another US$110m radio network contract awarded by Vmobile in
February 2004 to LM Ericsson.

 Starcomms, in March 2003, had a US$70m network upgrade investment

in separate contracts to LM Ericsson and Huawei Technologies.

 US$17m wireless network-provisioning contract, to Harris Networks, by

Odua Tel, in January 2003.

 US$145m network expansion contract awarded by Reltel in April 2003 to

LM Ericsson.

 NITEL awarded US$53m GSM contract by to LM Ericsson in April 2003.

MTEL has a cumulative expenditure of US$650m on network investment
as at April 2004, in separate contracts to Motorola, ZTE, Huawei and LM
Ericsson.

 US$7m investment by Huawei in establishing a multi-product training

centre in Abuja.

 US$12m network upgrade contract awarded by Intercellular to Motorola

in July 2003.

The majority of the active operators have awarded contracts for the expansion of
their networks into the hinterland. Operators with aggressive network rollouts
include MTN Nigeria, Globacom, Vmobile, Intercellular, and Starcomms. Internet
companies that are also active in network growth include Accelon, Direct-on-PC,
GS Telecom, Linkserve, Broadband Technologies, and Koochi Communications,
among others (NCC, 2005). At the end of 2004, at least 100 Nigerian towns had
primary coverage from the telephone operators.

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The foregoing shows a serious trend in ICT infrastructure development in Nigeria
and the challenge remains effective deployment of the facility to develop every
sector of the economy – urban or rural.

ICT in Rural Development

Considering the idea of holistic rural development, the focus does not have to be
specific to agriculture in order to enhance rural livelihoods or contribute to
improved agricultural production. The concept of rural development implies the
desire to improve the circumstances and position of rural communities through
the recognition that a dichotomous urban-rural relationship exists (CTA, 2006).
This is important to most developing countries where rural population constitute
the majority of the country’s population and especially in Nigeria where about
55% of the population live in rural areas (Microsoft Corporation, 2003). The
importance of rural development cannot be overemphasised to the extent that
the concept is analogous to human development concerns as a whole; they are
deemed identical such that studies on the latter are synonymous with the former
(Sharon, undated).

The rural poor constitute the engines of agricultural production in developing

countries while agricultural production and post-harvest activities account for the
primary livelihood strategies available to them. Hence, any problem to improving
the general livelihood of the rural poor (such as lack of information, lack of health
provision, disasters, lack of education, lack of infrastructure, lack of financial
services, and many others) will have significant impacts on agricultural
production at household, regional and national levels. The interventions that
improve the general livelihoods of the rural poor will also yield significant
agricultural development opportunities to the rural families.

In examining the potential of ICT for rural development, it is essential to

recognise that information dissemination is a fundamental element of any rural
development programme, as rural areas are often considered information-poor.
Amidst the changes facing extension, there is growing recognition that farmers

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and members of rural communities have needs for information and appropriate
learning methods that are not being met (Greenridge, 2003; Lightfoot, 2003). The
emerging issue is how ICT can be integrated into local knowledge and
information networks to address locally identified knowledge gaps. With the
emphasis on ‘Information and Communications’, the importance of context-driven
and indigenous approaches such as projects that meet local needs, demand-
driven content and local language media become obvious challenges.

According to IDRC (undated), the role of ICTs in developing local

agriculture may provide the following benefits:
• Faster and more efficient delivery of information with more relevant
and adapted content
• Wider dissemination of information to people hitherto unreached or
underserved, and a deeper geographic penetration, especially to rural
areas
• Access to information sources worldwide hence fostering
empowerment of men, women and the youth in the communities
thereby spreading of knowledge and information about good practices
• Rare opportunities and challenges for government to provide services
to the rural population to participate in the development process.
A way of intervention may be through the establishment of a web-based
information service which will provide commodity prices at various points in the
country, equipment cost/prices at different places, basic agricultural production
information, disease management techniques, questions and answers slot to
enhance feedback, value-added information for export products and prices of
exported commodities. This service will be most relevant to the farmers and other
rural dwellers, who characteristically lack or have poor access to vital information
for their enterprises. It will make them have better productivity and better values
for their efforts. If, for instance, a farmer wishes to sell his produce and have
information about the price such produce is sold at various places, he may
decide to sell where people will pay more or at least enable him negotiate better
if he wishes to dispose them at the farm gate. This will ultimately lead to

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significant development in agriculture and rural sector because agro
entrepreneurs will be better rewarded and agricultural enterprises will be
enhanced. Such programme providing information on improved
methods/practices in agricultural production, which will enhance farmers’
productivity. The information exchange process will be buttressed through Online
Content Management System to entrench feedback into the communication
process.

Youths in Development Programmes

The conventional view of knowledge transfer is that knowledge is best

transferred from adults to youth or from adults to adults. Even liberal educators
who attempt to use participatory, or Socratic, methods of learning have jealously
guarded the elderly image of the teacher. Even in peer tutoring, older or smarter
youths have been used as substitutes for teachers.

Societal prejudices have sustained these conservative views on the capabilities

of youth. In most communities, young people are assumed to be unsure of what
they want, short-tempered, lacking in coping skills, immature, restless, unsettled,
exuberant and unable to handle stress. Because of these prejudices, youth have
not been given more responsibility or a chance to use their potential to the
maximum.

These prejudices have had dire consequences for development processes in

Africa. Elders who have maintained their right to be educators have been unable
to update themselves in various areas as evident in the emerging ICT tools. Most
of their views and skills have remained static. The youth, on the contrary, have
been acquiring knowledge and skills but have had difficulty transferring to their
elders and their communities. As a result, communities have failed to be
transformed by the traditionally oriented educational systems and institutions.
The youth have thus been relevant to other institutions except their communities.

The problem is that of mutual irrelevance. Because adult skills have remained
static, they have become irrelevant to the youth, and the youth have acquired

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some new and dynamic skills that their communities have not internalised, hence
these skills have remained in the youth sectors of society. This mutual
irrelevance has widened the divide between the modern sectors and the
indigenous sectors and slowed the processes of mutual enrichment. For this
reason, education has continued to benefit more and more people in the modern
sectors while the so-called traditional sectors have fallen further and further
behind.

In the past two decades, however, the myth of adult monopoly over knowledge
and the mechanisms of its transfer have been shattered. Youth-to-youth schools
have sprung up in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the
Congo (Kinshasa), Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria,
Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, and
Zimbabwe (Paschal et al, 2000).

Youth volunteers, working with the help of teachers and other specialists, have
become very effective in the areas of health, nutrition, safety, sanitation, and
environmental management. In Zambia, for example, the youth have helped to
popularise immunisation for polio, measles, diphtheria, TB, etc. Using songs and
poems composed by young people, the youth have easily changed other youths’
and the community’s attitudes toward immunisation (Otaala, 1986). In Botswana,
Zambia, and Zimbabwe, youth have spearheaded community programmes on
clean water and sanitation, good diets and nutrition, and the prevention of
diarrhoea. They use songs and demonstrations, plays, dramas, paintings,
drawings, games, etc. In Botswana, one also sees youth-to-youth programs on
safety and survival, covering, for example, road signs, road crossing, and first-aid
techniques.

A typical poor person in Africa may not be devoid of resources, such as land or
assets for use in production and distribution; rather most of the poor individuals
and communities lack knowledge of how to better use their natural resources,
add value to their primary products, create commodities out of their resources,
attract consumers from within and outside the community, among other economic

14
activities. Most African communities, whether rural or urban, have a distance
problem. Some industrial estates located in big cities are unreachable because of
bad roads, personal security problems, etc. In some cases, industry operators
have had to build roads and small bridges to make their estates reachable. Most
rural areas are mainly accessible by footpath and sometimes by canoe. Transfer
of commodities and products to and from such areas depends on human, animal,
and bicycle portage. This creates a distance penalty. Any development
programme to help reduce poverty in such areas must have a clear
understanding of the role of communication infrastructure and the potential for
telecommunication and information systems to reduce this distance penalty.

On the need to pursue holistic rural development goal, it is important to see how
the use of existing telecommunication infrastructure can improve access to
information on health, social services, environmental management, and industrial
production and services. Whether in the urban or rural areas, in the majority of
cases, people still make only social use of telephones, where these are available.
More often than not, they use telephones to reduce their need to physically go
and see someone, rather than for accessing information on social services,
production, distribution, or governance.

The Role of Youths in ICT Integration for Rural Development

Sustainability of ICT introduction in rural areas is an important issue which

involves factors of human capacity, social capital and best practises. This will
determine the extent to which rural communities can optimise the benefits of ICT
for agricultural and rural development (FAO, 2000). In essence, to enhance
sustainability will require the recognition of youths and their potentials. They are
members of every community and a focus of development stakeholders on these
members of communities will enable the use of their capabilities to achieve
developmental objectives. This position is relevant because of the following
qualities of youths as stated by Paschal et al (2000).

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1. That youth have been critical to the propagation of community knowledge
and have a big influence on their parents and other adults in their
communities;

2. That through youth-to-youth and youth-to-community education programs,

the youth have (even at a tender age) succeeded in helping to improve the
quality of life in Africa where others have failed;

3. That status and other problems tend to constrain adult-to-adult education

programmes, whereas youth-to-adult education programs do not have
such problems;

4. That the youth have shown leadership in acquiring the skills needed to
use ICTs and that most adults are already learning these skills from young
members of the community;

5. That the youth, as agents of ICTs, would have a unique opportunity to give
back to society a bit of what society has given them in terms of their care
and education;

6. That most youth in Africa have been systematically alienated from their
communities through education and that through such community-based
programmes they can be reintegrated into their communities and be given
an opportunity to engage in community development;

7. That for community-based programmes to succeed, they must recognise,

respect, and reciprocate with community systems of knowledge, power,
and production;

8. That the national youth service programs of various governments have

laid the foundations for the integration of the youth into their communities
and that a youth-to-community education programme for information-
technology (IT) literacy would add a greater value to the role of youth in
community development; and

9. That “information poverty” is at the core of Africa’s slow recovery and

stagnation and that equipping youth with IT skills and proper

16
 methodologies to transfer such skills to adults involved in production and
services can go a long way toward spearheading Africa’s entry into the
global information society.

Given these facts, incorporating youths as change agents in intervention

programmes that involve technology transfer will be really meaningful as well as
sustainable. Their role in the conceptualised programme can be by selecting
some youths in the locality that will be trained to serve as anchor persons for the
ICT deployment programme. They will serve as human-machine interface
between the source of information (website and IT equipment) and the people
(information seekers/users). This strategy of intermediary is to circumvent the
literacy/technical constraints as well as stimulate sustainability of the project.

Conclusion

Given the discussions x-rayed in this write-up, it can be safely concluded that;

 Nigerian communication infrastructure development has gone far and the

country can be said to be ready for ICT deployment for human
development

 A major challenge to development stakeholders is to be in tune with the

trends of happenings in the digital world so as to be in position to adopt
appropriate strategies to pursue their developmental goals

 The characteristic of rural audience does not seem adequate to appreciate

the highly technical information technology; unless an intervention strategy
is evolved, such deployment may only be elitist and ineffective

 Youths are present everywhere and their characteristic is often

underestimated by most traditional societies; whereas their traits holds the
key to an eventful deployment of the ICTs in local communities

 Recognition of youth as important stakeholders/partners in development

programmes, especially in rural areas will foster development activities in
developing countries

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Recommendations

 Basic education must be provided for young people so that they will be
made ready for civic responsibilities expected of them

 Adopting ICTs for rural development should not be seen as utopian but a
sure way to bridge the gap between the developing and developed nations

 Development practitioners must re-strategise and consider the inclusion of

youths in the implementation of transfer-of-technology developmental
programmes

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