CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Communication which is so much a part of us, sees to be everywhere at the same time, it is central to all human interactions. It is the most basic and one of the earliest activities of human beings. Communication as an integral part of our existence for there to be any meaningful development, there has to be communication between initiator of the developments process and the target audience of these development project. All development depends on knowledge and this knowledge is a function of the amount and quality of facts at ones disposal. The farmers needs information on possibilities that exist for improving on their lot and how to effect the necessary changes. They also need specific information on how to do things that will result in an improvement of their farming yield.

Agreeing on the role of communication, Ebo (1999:24) observes that communication in development can teach new skills act as multiplier of resources, raise levels of aspiration as incentive for action, raise level of people, help to find new norms and harmony in periods of transaction change the structure in a society by knowledge to the mares, create sense of nationality and led to increased political participation, promote people need in satisfying developments projects and making economic, social and political development a self perpetual process.

Due to this important role of communication, mobile phone have been given a prominent role in communicating development messages to the people. In a similar view Abiri (2011:1) says that today’s world seems to be dominated by improved technology has made much impact in communication, mass communication in particular. Improved technology has greatly increase the efficiency of communication to the extent that the process can send and receive messages around the world and into space with maximum speed and efficiency.

The point of the matter here however is on the telecommunication industry. Technological revolution has impacted so much on telecommunication sectors to the extent that it becomes of the fastest growing industries in the world. Efficient telecommunication services play vital role in modern societies of money developed and developing nations. In Nigeria, the first national development plan (1963 – 1968) identified the need for rapid development of telecommunication sector.

Commenting on telecommunication Ndula (2002:5) asserted that today the growth of telecommunication has been accompanied with significant advances in technology research. One of the latest in modern telecommunication, central to information technology is the mobile phones. Today the much anticipated system of mobile communication recently introduced in Nigeria has brought about a total revolution in the history of telecommunication development in Nigeria.

The importance of mobile phones among farmers cannot be overemphasized as it makes it very easy for farmers to interact with ease and immediacy. Farmers operators use mobile phones to make speedily appointments, quite clarification and instant reply of the messages.

Mobile phones have gone through a long process of evolution and all through about six decades of continuous evolution, the mobile phone has retained its relevance to the life of the modern man. At every stage in his growth curve, it has undergone metamorphosis, adding features and functionalities that make it even more indispensable. It started as an extension of the landline, a bridge between the home and office landlines. It found relevance in the need of the modern professional to remain in communication in and out of home or office, at lay in the car, at lauch and anywhere else. The mobile phone has since moved up from this sophistic role to become more actually involved in the way modern business are educated. Apart from, being a tool for mobile voice communication, mobile phones today are a hybrid of personal computers and a communication device. They come with screens, miniky boards storage for personal information such as contacts, email, documents, the ability to play video files, games and a communications capacity. With these features and functionality. Come a wide range of other uses, a mobile phone can put into a business or work environment apart from the traditional voice communication. Now mobile phone makes it possible for a busy executive to work from