a. The functional literacy level of some farmers is very low making it a barrier to the widespread adoption of ICT. b. Extensive adoption of ICT tools by farmers as the return on investments is not always immediately apparent. c. High cost of equipment and lack of enabling telecommunications infrastructure as well as stable power supply poses a major obstacle to the widespread adoption of ICT especially in rural areas. A1-6-4 Targets a. ICT department should be established within the Ministry of Agriculture to spearhead advance of ICTs in the sector by end 2009. b. Equip the extension and research sections in the Ministry of Agriculture with ICT tools by end 2009. c. Improve the Ministry of Agriculture’s website by making it interactive and dynamic end 2009. d. Farmers should be educated on the values and importance of ICT by 2010 and on the use of renewable energy in farming by 2012. e. Using geo tools to conduct aerial survey and digital mappings to show current status of farming ecologies by 2010. A1-7 ICT Infrastructure and Services Delivery A1-7-1 Issues a. Low penetration of the Fixed-line telephony services country-wide; b. Low teledensity overall (fixed-line and mobile); c. Inadequate international information bandwidth; d. Inadequate and old technology national information backbone; e. Limited and low capacity in energy sources to power ICT devices; f. Contention over international gateway exclusivity held by SierraTel; g. Security in communication; h. Poor and inadequate ICT infrastructure for e-commerce activities; i. Low capitalization for ICT development; j. ICT use and awareness is not pervasive; k. Clarification on management of Sierra Leone’s Country Code Top Level Domain name (ccTLD, .sl); l. High cost of ICT services and products particularly the mobile telephony services; m. Service delivery mainly at narrow band speeds. ICT Policy of Sierra Leone Page 53 / 63