Innovation: ICT Adoption and Crop Production in Nigeria

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in crop production is still relatively new in Nigeria. An observation of the statistics on ICT adoption and crop production with the exploration of the application of the theoretical prescriptions of the Diffusion model (in terms of innovation) to crop production suggests a strong positive association. This study empirically examines the degree of association between crop production and ICT adoption in Nigeria using Pairwise correlation methodology. The results showed that mobile cell subscription and internet usage indicated a high positive degree of association with crop production while fixed telephone lines indicated a weak but positive correlation with crop production. The study postulates that Crop production can be achieved by increasing the utilisation of ICTs in the Crop production value-chain process and the recommendation from the study was to encourage the use of ICTs through government and private sector investment in the agric sector development to reduce the cost of acquisition of ICTs by crop producers and farmers