Through examining the example of commercial small-scale horticultural farmers in Mt. Kenya region and Mwanza region, this empirical study aims to provide an explanation for why different perspectives on the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the Global South exist. A mixed methods approach was used to show that ICT usage can lead to significant improvements, including access to simple and complex knowledge and the development of business linkages. However, the influence of ICT depends on the different ICT usage types and the capabilities of farmers to use them. This paper gives a differentiated view on factors influencing the effects of ICT on small-scale farming. It provides a typology of ICT that helps to explains some of the potential effects of ICT usage in the Global South. The results contribute to the current applied and conceptual debate on market access for smallholders and Information and Communication Technologies for Development.

Small‐scale farmers in rural areas in the Global South often lack access to crucial business knowledge due to, among others, spatial constraints, for example, peripheral locations and poor transport infrastructure. Studies on information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) argue that the use of ICTs like mobile phones, supports farmers by overcoming these constraints. Combining concepts about knowledge with relational and spatial proximity, this paper aims to contribute to the current debate on ICT4D studies. Based on a survey and qualitative interviews with horticultural small‐scale farmers in the Mwanza region, Tanzania, we analyse the potential and limitations of mobile phone use to reduce spatial constraints in order to access different types of knowledge. Our results show the benefits of phone use to access particularly external knowledge can only fully take place if the users already possess external contacts that are, however, usually based on personal relationships in close spatial proximity.

Insufficient access to markets, limited financial transactions, and a lack of information and knowledge often restrict opportunities for small-scale farmers to link up with commercial value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. Advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially mobile phones and the internet, have expanded the possibility to communicate across geographical distances and to integrate into commercial value chains. By using a novel combination of conceptual considerations on ICTs, value chains, and relational proximity, this paper assesses: 1. How the use of ICTs affects the integration of small-scale farmers into the value chains (by analysing the information and knowledge flow, the financial and market transactions) and 2. to what extent the use of ICTs is on the other side influenced by the value chain context (i.e. the structure and coordination of the chain and the relational proximity between farmer and buyer). Our findings showed that even simple ICTs (phones) can lead to improvements for farmers to integrate into the chain as they facilitate simple information and complex knowledge flow, financial transactions, and market access, even though a greater structural transformation was absent. However, our results showed that the extent of the effects depends on the context in the value chains, in particular their structure, coordination, and the relational proximity between the actors. In this way, this paper contributes to the conceptual discussions on information and communication for development (ICT4D) and the dynamics in value chains.

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