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

dc.contributor.advisorMachethe, Charles Lepepeule
dc.contributor.coadvisorChagwiza, Clarietta
dc.contributor.emailazola.mhambi@gmail.comen_US
dc.contributor.postgraduateMhambi, Azola
dc.date.accessioned2023-02-15T13:59:03Z
dc.date.available2023-02-15T13:59:03Z
dc.date.created2023-04
dc.date.issued2022
dc.descriptionThesis (MAgric (Rural Development))--University of Pretoria, 2022.en_US
dc.description.abstractThe 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.en_US
dc.description.availabilityUnrestricteden_US
dc.description.degreeMAgric (Rural Development)en_US
dc.description.departmentAgricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmenten_US
dc.description.sponsorshipNRFen_US
dc.identifier.citation*en_US
dc.identifier.doi10.25403/UPresearchdata.22100570en_US
dc.identifier.otherA2023en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/89592
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Pretoria
dc.rights© 2022 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
dc.subjectICTen_US
dc.subjectSmallholder maize farmersen_US
dc.subjectAdoptionen_US
dc.subjectDeterminantsen_US
dc.subjectChallengesen_US
dc.subjectUCTD
dc.titleInformation and Communication Technology adoption and its determinants among smallholder maize farmers in Mqanduli, Eastern Cape Province, South Africaen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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