The exposure presence of the Internet on the Information and Communications Technology(lCT) scene and the rapid adoption of Internet supported activities have created a wide range of opportunities and expectations in Agricultural production. Farmers have more information on how to manage their farms. Furthermore, farmers go into marketing their agricultural products through the Internet and they also have access to the market where they can purchase the recent equipments and machines that can aid them in agricultural production.They also have access to information about new chemicals such as pesticides, insecticides and herbicides and how to obtain them cheaply thereby maximizing their profit. Effective adoption of the Internet for extension in agriculture is challenging despite substantial investment in human capital and other resources. A lot of benefits such as updated and comprehensive information reach the end users and farmers have access to new methods of agricultural practices.
Today in agricultural tertiary institution (universities, colleges of agriculture and monotechnics) the Internet is playing a vital role in imparting technical knowledge in he area of agricultural teaching and research. Students of tertiary institutions require the latest information in the field of agriculture. In the developing countries like Nigeria, students suffer from in adequate access to information facilities, which will aid in their research, cross pollination of ideas and interaction with other relevant organizations and research centres in the field of agriculture.STATEMENT OF PROBLEM Agricultural production is becoming dependent on Information Communications Technology ('CT) use for agricultural studies and agricultural extension.
The relevance of the Internet in modern agriculture in terms of accessibility cost and how Internet services are used among students needs to be studied. AIM OF THE STUDY The study is aimed at determining the patterns of Internet use among students of colleges of Agriculture. 1 . To ascertain the level of accessibility to the Internet among students of Colleges of Agriculture. 2.
To identify the purposes of Internet utilization among students of Colleges of Agriculture. 3. To find out the obstacles to Internet access and utilization among students of Colleges of Agriculture. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The ever increasing number of people accessing the Internet coupled with recent explosion of information resources on the Internet may have considerable implications on teaching, learning and research.
This study is therefore an attempt to assess the effectiveness of the Internet as an educational tool and what role it actually plays in the educational system with special reference to agricultural colleges.The Internet is an inseparable part of todays agricultural education system, it is therefore important to find out to what extent it's services are utilized by tudents for agricultural education purposes and the challenges to access and utilization. SCOPE OF THE STUDY This research study will be restricted to ascertaining the level of accessibility of the Internet by the students of agriculture, cost incurred in Internet utilization and determining the constraints to Internet utilization among students.
