Constraints in Utilizing Digital Agriculture Among Vegetable Farmers in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area Of Rivers State, Nigeria

The study examined the constraints in utilizing digital agriculture technologies among vegetable farmers in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area Rivers State, Nigeria. Specific objectives include to identify the socioeconomic characteristics of the vegetable farmers, identify various digital agriculture technologies, and examine the factors influencing utilization of digital agriculture technologies among vegetable farmers. A structured questionnaire in line with the objectives of the study was used to obtain information from seventy (70) vegetable farmers selected using simple random sampling technique. Simple descriptive statistics and logit regression models were used to analyze the data collected. The result shows 43 years as the mean age of the farmers, 11 years as the mean spent to attain the educational level and household size of 6 members as the mean. The result of the logit regression analysis shows that educational level is statistically significant at 0.01 level, while gender, household size, farming experience and ownership of digital tools were statistically significant at 0.05 level of probability respectively. The study concludes that the constraints in utilizing digital agriculture technologies include inadequate capital, ignorance, and lack of access to technologies among others. The study therefore recommends that training programmes should be carried out from time to time to bridge the knowledge gap; farmers should make a deliberate effort to learn digital agriculture technologies and how they can utilize it effectively in the production activities; service providers like MTN, Glo among others should make network accessible and affordable to the farmers among others.