Monitoring Role of ICT in Quality of Artificial Insemination Services in Nyeri County, Kenya

Abstract

Privatization of artificial insemination (AI) services led to a situation where government control of monitoring and evaluation of the services was drastically reduced. The privatization was also concomitant with the introduction and rapid growth of information and communication technology (ICT). However, the use of ICT in rural farming areas has been documented to be low. This study investigated whether the usage of ICT in monitoring artificial insemination services has an influence on the quality of the services. A cross sectional survey was carried out involving 188 farmers and 57 AI service providers. The study found that verbal communication through mobile telephones was the most commonly used technology for communicating AI related information. It was further found that use of the internet was very low among the rural farmers. This was attributed to the fact that most of the farmers were above 60 years of age and had not embraced the application of computers in their activities. The study further found that the application of ICT has a significant positive influence on quality of AI services. It was therefore recommended that there is a need for extension service providers to invest more in ICT related extension.