THROUGH THE LENSES OF ACTOR-NETWORK APPROACH - THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF NIGERIAN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH OUTREACH CENTRE

Abstract

Agriculture’s goal in Nigeria is to provide supportive resources to sustain mankind, environmental resilience against climate change, nation’s economy, irrespective of geographical location or social status with a total land of 911,000 sq. km, and about (80%) is available for various agricultural purposes including arable land, permanent crops, pastures, and irrigated land. However, to achieve the set goal in the past, a series of agricultural information dissemination strategies such as radio, television, and print media were employed to raise adequate revenue for the agricultural sector and increase the food supply in Nigeria via Agricultural Research Outreach Centre in the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services adopted villages/ schools. The study was premised on a mixed method for counterfactuals to facilitate novelties. Despite all the efforts, these strategies did not yield the desired goal, thus, the digital transformation of the agricultural sector particularly to strengthen the extension system in Nigeria. This manner, demands the integration of the agricultural sector into the digital hub to create synergy among the stakeholders, source requisite agricultural information, and hybridize the means of disseminating agricultural information via participatory learning and action platforms. Also, create a Digital Participatory Learning and Action for Agricultural Extension (Di-PLA4AE). Thus, the paper trail on the concept of AROC, ICTs - Digitization, x-rayed the Actor-Network Approach (ANA) by Callon, its application, and the implications of digitization for agricultural activities to stakeholders and criticism in the context. More so, mirror the implications of the Di-PLA4AE and conclusion.