Abstract:

Agricultural robots are autonomous machines used in farming to help improve efficiency and
reduce dependency on manual labour. This study evaluated media awareness creation on
agricultural robots to increase food production in Ebonyi State. Three research questions guided
the study: What is the level of awareness of agricultural robots in Ebonyi state? To what level has
the media created awareness of agricultural robots in Ebonyi State?. The study was anchored on
two theories: Technology Determinism Theory and Social Responsibility Theory. The study
adopted a descriptive survey research design with a population size 223,082. The researcher used
Wemmer and Dominick's online sample size calculator to determine the sample size of 384. The
study was carried out on active farmers in Ebonyi state and journalists working in EBBC and Unity
FM. The data were collected through a structured questionnaire. It was analysed with statistical
packages for social sciences (SPSS) in simple percentages. The findings of the study showed that:
there was a low level of awareness of agricultural robots in Ebonyi State; the media had not created
much awareness of agricultural robots in Ebonyi State and there was no properly identified areas
of agricultural robots that had been applied in the State. The study recommended that agricultural
upskilling should be provided to farmers in the state through workshops and seminars which would
increase food production. The broadcast media in the state should create special agricultural robots
programme to increase the awareness of this new technology to farmers. The government of the
state should procure agricultural robots equipment which would help increase the technological
know-how of the farmers and increase food production.