Social Media and Agricultural Revitalisation in Nigeria: Living Beyond Oil

Abstract

Before the discovery of oil in Nigeria, agriculture was the backbone of the Nigerian economy, but it has now been completely abandoned. Attention has then been shifted to oil and its accruing revenue. This has not only brought about food scarcity in the country but also created poverty and unemployment. The need, therefore, arises to reorient Nigerians and relevant stakeholders to revisit the agricultural sector. The study examined the usefulness and effectiveness of utilising social media in reaching out to farmers in the rural area of the Central Senatorial District of Delta State, Nigeria. Data was collected using a well-structured questionnaire and quantitatively analysed using multiple regressions, descriptive statistics, and the mean. Also, the agenda-setting theory, whose central concern is the transfer of topics deemed important by the media from the media agenda to that of the public, believing that the level of media coverage a topic receives affects how relevant it is to the general public, was adopted. The result showed that farmers in the study area can be influenced by the media and reoriented if the issue at stake is given prominence. This stems from the fact that most of the respondents use internet-enabled phones and have access to information on social media. It was recommended, among others, that all stakeholders get involved in the revitalisation of the agricultural sector for food sufficiency and self-dependence.