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The Nigeria
Farmers' Knowledge Center is a field
experiment of a collaborative model of
knowledge creation and transmission for
the social good. It will provide
agricultural and other relevant
information to rural farmers in the town
of Ihiala, Nigeria, using collaborative
information technology (the Internet) in
partnership with African Diasporas all
over the world.
The first knowledge center serving
farmers will be located #1 Obi Onyije
Avenue. Onyije Villa, Umunnamehi, Ihiala,
Anambra State, Nigeria. and be opened in
March 2007. The center will be named
Si_May Center after Chief Simon
Maduabuchukwu & Lolo Mary Igboaka
whose mansion was voluntarily provided
by their succeeding son as a temporarily
site for the center.
The research team consists of a
principal investigator and two
co-investigators. Louisa Ha, the
principal investigator, is a
communication scholar residing in
America with a strong academic
publication record and research
experience in international
communication and new media technology.
She received her Ph.D. from
Michigan State University. She is the
Undergraduate Coordinator in the
Department of Telecommunications at
Bowling Green State University, Ohio,
U.S.A. and the chair of the Emerging
Media Research Cluster in the School of
Communication Studies. Co-investigator
Ralphael N. Okigbo is a native African
botany scholar with interest in
agriculture technology residing in
Southeast Nigeria. He received his Ph.D.
from University of Benin, Nigeria. He is
the chair of the Department of Botany at
Nnamdi Azikiwe University.
Co-investigator
Primus Igboaka is a Nigerian doctoral
student in communication residing in the
United States and the research assistant
of Ha. He has an MBA and a master's
degree in communication. Igboaka's
hometown village is Ihiala, the
site of the proposed study.
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