Information and Communication Technology deployment and agricultural value chain nexus in Nigeria

Oluwatoyin A Matthew; Romanus Osabohien; Olanrewaju Olaniyi Omosehin; Nasreen Jawaid; Timothy Aderemi; Opeyemi Olanrewaju; Patience N Evans-Osabuohien

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19043

Information and Communication Technology deployment and agricultural value chain nexus in Nigeria

Heliyon. 2023 Aug 25;9(9):e19043. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19043. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Authors

Oluwatoyin A Matthew^{1

2}, Romanus Osabohien^{1

2}, Olanrewaju Olaniyi Omosehin^{2

3}, Nasreen Jawaid⁴, Timothy Aderemi⁵, Opeyemi Olanrewaju⁶, Patience N Evans-Osabuohien⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Economics and Development Studies, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.
² Centre for Economic Policy and Development Research (CEPDeR), Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.
³ Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria.
⁴ Department of Computer Science, ILMA University, Karachi, Pakistan.
⁵ Bells University of Technology, Ota, Nigeria.
⁶ Internal Food Policy Research Institute, Abuja, Nigeria.
⁷ Department of Business Management, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.

Abstract

This study examined the point of the agricultural value chain where the deployment of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is significant. The study used the data sourced from wave 4 (2018/2019) of the Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Survey on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) and applied the Multinomial Logit (MNL) regression. The result showed that ICT deployment is significant for all actors along the agricultural value chain. However, though significant for all actors on the value chain, the estimated coefficients slightly differ. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is helpful for all the actors along the chain from the estimated coefficients but higher at the farmgate collectors. This can be based on the rationale that, unlike other actors in the chain, the farmgate collectors interact directly or more with the farmers, making ICT more crucial for them than other actors in the chain. The study concludes that ICT can provide farmers and value chain actors with information about the market, among others, new production skills and processes that will help them upgrade, leading to entry into higher-value markets.

Keywords: Agricultural value chain; ICT deployment; Information access; Value chain actors.