South Africa: Access to Agricultural Information

Excerpts from the document summary

“This is the conclusion of a study carried out under the auspices of the Department of Library and Information Services of the University of Zululand among rural women in the communities of Mkhwanazi and Melmoth in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The purpose of the study was to investigate the diffusion of Information and Communications Technlogy (ICTs) used to communicate agricultural information. Although the South African government has formulated policies to facilitate the provision of agricultural information to rural communities, the implementation of these policies has so far not been effective. This is partly due to the deficient telecommunication infrastructure in rural areas, and partly to the lack of capacity and skills development among rural communities.”


The article concludes: “Consequently, apart from the necessary improvement of the telecommunication infrastructure and rural electrification, the study recommends that extension workers, agricultural researchers and policy makers should collaborate more closely with rural communities, particularly women, to make sure that the content of radio and television programmes is more relevant to their needs.”