ICTs, smallholder agriculture and farmers’ livelihood improvement in developing countries: Evidence from Tanzania

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are among the profound tools to help the poor and marginalized rural smallholder farmers make a difference in their lives. This paper seeks to understand how the recent development of ICTs helps increase agricultural productivity and improve smallholder farmers’ livelihoods in Tanzania. We employed a fuzzy sets Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) technique to select the most relevant 24 literature from 2163 literature and analyze the drivers ( conditions) that influence ICT use among the smallholder farmers, which in turn leads to increased agricultural productivity and improved farmers’ livelihoods ( outcomes). In addition, the authors conducted in-depth interviews with some local smallholder farmers in Tanzania's same regions, as shown in the reviewed literature, to understand how ICTs worked in the field. Findings revealed that ICTs had been increasingly used for and directly linked with agricultural transformation, increased agricultural productivity and improved rural livelihoods in Tanzania in the past two decades. Smallholder farmers rely on ICT tools, particularly mobile phones and radios, to access agricultural-related information, which helps them increase agricultural productivity. The limited number of public extension service agents forces most smallholder farmers to opt for ICTs as an alternative source of agricultural information. In this case, the agricultural extension department from the ministry of agriculture should work closely with telecom, broadcasting companies and other stakeholders to strengthen and initiate more appropriate ICT infrastructure and services targeting the smallholder farmers.