Abstract:
Agricultural extension is a critical agent for transfomiing subsistence farming to modernized and commercial agriculture through the dissemination of agricultural information to farmers. Despite this, extension services are still limited in most parts of Kenya. This has necessitated a move towards more innovative methods of extension service delivery for effective coverage by the Government of Kenya through the introduction of ICT-based e-Extension programme. The adoption and usage of ICTs in accessing agricultural infomqation among farmers remain low. This has been attributed to socio-economic, cultural and technological factors. The overall objective of this study therefore, was to establish the influence of technology-related factors on usage of e-Extension services among smallholder farmers in Nakuru County, Kenya. Descriptive survey research design was used in the study whereby questionnaires and focus group discussion guides were used to collect data from 130 smallholder farmers, 25 extension agents and three focus group discussions held with eight participants each. The face and content validity of the instruments were examined by five experts from the Department of Agricultural Education and Extension, Egerton University. The questionnaires were piloted and reliability coefficients were 0.87 and 0.71 respectively. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics, namely frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation were used to describe and summarize qualitative data. Ordinal logistic regression and Chi square tests were used to test the hypotheses at [1 = 0.05 level of significance. Results of hypotheses testing indicated that access to ICTs and ICT skills of farmers‘ influences usage of e-Extension services among smallholder fanners. Furthermore. the study established that availability and characteristics of digital content had an influence on usage of e-Extension services. In addition, the findings ofthe study indicated that the type of e-platforms had a significant influence on the usage of e-Extension services. This study therefore, concludes that e-Extension services can be used to complement other extension methods in dissemination of agricultural information to smallholder farmers. The study recommends that for this to be achieved there is need for national and county governments to invest in the development of ICT skills of farmers as well as coordination and regulation of available agricultural digital content. It also recommends partnership between the national government, county govermnents and other stakeholders in the provision of e- Extension services. The County govcmment of Nakuru should also create awareness and sensitize farmers on the availability of e-Extension services through the Nakuru Farmer Call Center (NFCC).
