Smallholders farmers access to agricultural information: A case of Lushoto and Korogwe Districts, Tanzania

Abstract

Smallholder farmers’ access to agricultural extension is critical for high productivity. Therefore, the paper assesses smallholder farmer’s access to agricultural information in Lushoto and Korogwe Districts, Tanga Region. Specifically, it identifies types of information accessed and the respective sources. A cross-sectional research design was used whereby data were collected from 200 randomly selected smallholder farmers using a structured questionnaire, interviews and focus group discussions. Quantitative data were analysed using (SPSS) version 26, and content analysis was used for qualitative data. The findings show that more than a half of the surveyed farmers accessed their agricultural information through their relatives/neighbours, radio, agricultural officers, and Television and only a minority (18.5%) accessed the same through social media and the internet. In addition, Pearson chi-square analysis results show that improved seed varieties, market information, best farming methods, pest management and manure were the highly searched types of agricultural information from social media and the internet (P ≤ 0.05). Furthermore, binary regression analysis results show that smallholder farmers’ likelihood of using social media and the internet was significant (P≤ 0.05) in relation to information (fertilizer, improved seeds and agricultural incentives). Therefore, it is concluded that despite the challenges which smallholder farmers face in accessing types of agricultural information using multiple sources, their use of ICT to curb the shortfall is still limited. Thus, the Government, agricultural sector stakeholders and development partners are urged to promote farmers’ digital literacy so that they can use ICT in meeting their agricultural information needs.