ICTs in Irish Agriculture: Can ICTs Improve Communication Between Agribusiness and Farmers?

This paper critiques the level of adoption of ICTs among the farming community in Ireland and compares this with adoption by the general population. It was found that although computer access and internet use among Irish households have been increasing rapidly in recent years, farm households have been lagging behind in adoption of these technologies. Broadband access has been particularly problematic in rural areas, where farm households are located. The development of a novel extranet service by a large agribusiness is evaluated in this paper; this service allows dairy farmer clients to access all information relevant to their accounts with this agribusiness through a secure website. A structured survey of clients was carried out and respondents were stratified on the basis of their usage of this extranet service. It was found that three factors are constraining adoption and use of ICTs among Irish farmers: low levels of computer skills; lack of awareness of the potential of ICTs to contribute to the farm business and thirdly access to Broadband in rural areas are fundamental problems that constrain adoption of ICT.