Abstract:
The study assessed the effect of Information Communication Technologies
on information access among public and private agricultural extension
officers in Lesotho. ICT infrastructure in Lesotho is currently low, with
accessibility to telecommunication services of about 3% of the entire
population for land telephone lines and just about 20% for mobile phone.
Lesotho ICT policy has provided guidance by allocating various
responsibilities to role players: this involves the Ministry of
Communications to formulate policies and the Lesotho Telecommunication
Authority (LTA) to regulate operations in communication infrastructure.
However, the effect of ICT on information access among extension officers
is still not known. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from
86 public and 19 private extension officers. Data collected were analysed
through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), using
frequencies, percentages, mean, standard deviation and multiple
regressions. Both categories of extension officers (public and private) had
very high perceptions of the positive effects of information and
communications technology on access to information. They scored high in
most of the twenty-nine statements measuring these effects. The multiple
regression model revealed a strong relationship between independent
variables and public and private extension officers’ information access.
Collaborations between public and private extension should be be
strengthened, since private extension service is more organized than the
public, this will help the use of ICT in the development programmes in the
country.
