The study investigated rural livestock farmers’ perception of the roles of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in livestock production, management and improvement in Imo State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to identify the various information and communication technology devices used by respondents in the study area, identify the roles of ICT tools in livestock production, management and improvement. Data were collected through questionnaire distributed to 150 ICT-User rural livestock farmers randomly selected from a list of 1500 livestock farmers in Imo State, Nigeria. Percentages, presented in frequency distribution tables, mean score were used to analyze the data. Results showed that the ICT tools available to the rural livestock farmers include mobile phones (91.3%), radio (56.6%), television (61.3%) and the internet (60%). With an acceptable mean score of 2.50, ICT tools play vital roles in livestock production, management improvement. Such roles includes reduced cost of production (M=2.80), facilitate livestock health care (M=3.31), track whereabout of animals (M=2.90), provision of technical advice (M=3.10), information on feeds/feeding (M=2.80), record keeping (M=2.80), forecast incidence of diseases (M=3.41), among other roles. The above underscores the importance of information in animal agriculture and the business of farming in general.

Two field experiment were conducted at EL-Gemiza Agricultural Research station El- Gharbia Governorate, during 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons to study the effect of three sowing dates (15th October, 1st November and 15th November) and six intercropping sowing rate of faba bean (Vicia faba) cv. Giza 843 with sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) cv. Halawa kws. In all intercropping systems (IS) sugar beet was35000 plant/fad (sugar beet sown one side of bed 120cm width with 1 seed/hill and 20cm hill space) while, faba bean densities differ under all intercropping systems as follows, IS1{70000 faba bean plant/fad (sown one row on the top of sugar beet ridges with two seeds/hill and 10cm hill space)}, IS2 {70000 faba bean plant/fad (sown two rows on the top of sugar beet bed and the bed with one seed/hill and 10cm hill space)}, IS3{(35000 faba bean plants /fad. Sown one row on the top of sugar beet bed with two seeds/hill and 20 cm hill space)}, IS4{35000 faba bean plant/fad (sown two rows on the top of sugar beet ridges with one seed/hill and 20cm hill space)}, IS5{17500 faba bean plant/fad (sown one row on the top of sugar beet ridges with two seeds/hill and 40 cm hill space)} and IS6{17500 faba bean plant/fad (sown two rows on the top of sugar beet ridges with one seeds/hill and 40cm hill space)}.