Perceptions of agricultural extension practitioners' towards information and communication technology tools in Polokwane Local Agricultural Office, Limpopo Province

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the perceptions of AEPs towards ICT tools to understand why AEPs are not using the ICT tools for their work as expected by the department of agriculture. The data was collected from AEPs by means of selfadministered, semi-structured questionnaire in the Tshebela and Mankweng service centres of Polokwane Local Agricultural Office. The findings firstly, indicate that less than half of the respondents are unaware of the advantages of the ICT tools for their work. This means more than half of the respondents are aware of the advantages of using ICT tools for their extension work. Secondly, the results show that less than half of respondents are aware of the disadvantage of the ICT tools for their extension work. This also implies that more than half of the respondents are not aware of any disadvantages of the tools for their extension work. Furthermore, with regard to the research question about the prominence of four ICT tools used together, the findings indicate that respondents believe that the combined use of four ICT tools (laptop, smart phone, smart pen technology and ESO) is helping them to achieve their extension career goals compared with the use of smart phone and laptop only. The hypothesis test of the influence of selected variables on the number of ICT tools used by AEPs show that the socio-economic characteristics of AEPs such as age, lower income, lack of training in the use of laptop (compatibility), and relative advantages issues such as awareness of disadvantages of the ICT tools have a negative influence on the number of ICT tools used as expected. The test also shows that the other variables such as sex, education, ESO training, SPT training, Smartphone training, unawareness of advantages and prominence positively correlate with the dependent variable. These positive relationships notwithstanding, the test indicates that only training received in the use of smart phone makes a significant contribution to the number of ICT tools used by AEPs. There is evidence from the study findings to suggest that most AEPs are aware of the advantages compared with the disadvantages of ICT tools for their extension work. Furthermore, the positive views expressed by AEPs about the prominence of the use of the four ICT tools together in helping them to achieve their extension career goals over the use of two tools shows that AEPs are motivated to use these four tools together. The department of agriculture should invest more in training AEPs in the use of the four ICT tools because they influence their use. AEPs however, highlighted challenges which hinder their use of the four ICT tools together and which need to be addressed by the department of agriculture to ensure that the four tools are used together. These include access to internet, non-supply of some of the tools by the employer, non-replacement of damaged ICT tools, inconvenient reimbursement structure which requires AEPs to use their own money upfront to purchase data bundle.

Keywords: Information Communication Technology, Agricultural Extension Practitioners, awareness of disadvantages, unawareness of advantages, prominence.