UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICTs) FOR INFORMATION SHARING AMONG POULTRY PRODUCTION ACTORS IN CHIRO TOWN, WEST HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

ICTs has been contributing a lot to actors having access to updated market information, which helped them make informed marketing decisions and facilitating interaction among producers, suppliers, distributors, and end consumers. The study investigated the utilization of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for information sharing among poultry production actors in Chiro Town. Both primary and secondary data were used for this study. Primary data were collected from randomly selected 160 sample respondents (50 ICT users and 110 ICT non-users) using structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and economic methods were used to analyze the data. A binary logistic regression model was used to identify factors influencing the use of ICTs. Secondary data were collected from both published and unpublished documents. Then quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS program version 16, and qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. The result of the econometric model showed ICT usage is significantly and positively influenced by sex, monthly income, access to ICT training, access to the internet, access to information, and costs of ICTs, but is significantly and negatively influenced by age, availability of ICTs, education level, and access to mobile network. Out of 160 poultry production actors, 89.4% of respondents owned ICT tools. From this, 97.2% of respondents owned mobile phones. In addition, 92.3% of the respondents had televisions, 27.3% had radios, 2.1% had cameras, and 30.8% had internet or Wifi. Most of the respondents owned ICTs, and mobile phonewas the main ICTs owned. Based on the results, only 31.3% of ICT users and 68.7% of ICT non-users are poultry production actors who use ICTs for information sharing and poultry production activities. Therefore, the study concludes that there is high access to and low usage of ICTs. So, the study recommends that the West Hararghe zone, Chiro town, and Chiro district should work together collaboratively to leverage ICTs for information sharing, knowledge exchange, and sustainable development in the poultry production sector. Offer training and support to poultry producers to improve their ICT skills and effectively utilize these technologies for information sharing.