Information and Communication Technology adoption and its determinants among smallholder maize farmers in Mqanduli, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

The adoption of technology by smallholder farmers has been shown to have a positive impact on their productivity. This applies to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as well. Despite the important role played by ICT in smallholder agriculture, little is known about the extent to which smallholder farmers in South Africa have adopted ICT and the factors which determine adoption. Most studies on ICT adoption focused on the health, education, banking, tourism, and e-government sectors. The main objective of this study was to determine the level of ICT adoption and its determinants among smallholder maize farmers in Mqanduli, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Sixty smallholder maize farmers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Availability or convenient sampling, which is one of the non-probability sampling procedures, was used to select the sample. The responses of the farmers to the questions in the questionnaire were captured and coded in Microsoft Excel. The main finding of the study was that smallholder maize farmers experienced challenges, including low quantity and poor quality of maize, lack of market information, lack of on-farm infrastructure, climate change, high transaction costs, lack of capital, and land fragmentation. The main factors which affected ICT technology adoption were the level of education, gender, willingness to use compatible phones, as well as the cost of adoption. The findings further revealed that smallholder farmers were aware of some of the ICT that is related to agriculture, but the level of usage was low. The smallholder farmers were willing to adopt ICT once they received the necessary training on ICT. There is a need for cellular telephone network providers, in partnership with the government, to install telecommunication infrastructure in rural areas and to develop mobile applications that can be used by farmers for agricultural purposes. This would help to ensure that farmers receive timely and accurate information and that they are not dependent entirely on extension workers for information. This would also assist in improving communication channels between the farmers and extension workers.