nformation Communication Technology (ICT) And Agricultural Development Projects In Kenya

Abstract

This study examines the use of Information Technology & Communication in agricultural development in Kenya and evaluates its impact, obstacles to ICT use and strategies to overcome these obstacles. In order to determine this linkage, a livelihood approach has been adopted. The livelihoods framework for analysis provides a way of thinking which views the poor as operating in a context of vulnerability. Within this context, the poor have access to certain assets or poverty-reducing factors. These gain meaning and value through the structures and processes of the prevailing institutional, organizational, and social environment. A cross-sectional survey was carried out using a questionnaire that focused on the level of ICT usage and the level of impact measured using the livelihood assets of human, social, physical, finance and natural. The impact indicators were based on these assets which are widely defined as objectives for each agricultural development project. The findings show a fair level of ICT usage in agricultural development and its positive impact widely realised in achieving the short term expectations of the projects. The study also reveals that obstacles to ICT usage were adequately addressed by the strategies to enhance ICT usage employed by individual projects. There is further need to analyse each ICT component and link it to its quantifiable contribution to the livelihood impact indicators.