Information Communication Technology Devices for Agricultural Information Dissemination among Smallholder Farmers in Uganda (Rubanda, Mayuge Districts, and Mbarara City)

Abstract

Agriculture continues to be the main source of livelihood in developing countries and smallholder farming is the most common type of agriculture practice supporting more than 70% of the population. On the other hand, information and communication technology (ICT) is quickly growing as its helping to connect easier and faster; thus, a dire need to harness it in promoting the agricultural sector. This study investigated the Information Communication Technology Devices for Agricultural Information Dissemination among Smallholder Farmers in Uganda (Rubanda, Mayuge Districts, And Mbarara City). The study adopted a cross-sectional research design that comprised a mixed methods approach of quantitative and qualitative. The instrument for this study consisted of structured questionnaires and interviews. More so, available reports and records were explored. The questionnaire was subjected to face and content validity and reliability test. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages. Findings show that the leading types of ICT devices for agricultural information dissemination in Rubanda District, Mayuge District, and Mbarara City were mobile phones and radios. The study recommends that the most important information to farmers should always be disseminated via phone conversation, texting, and radio for broadcast agricultural-related programs in respective local languages

ICT acceptance, language use and information culture as tools for enhancing information literacy within smallholder maize farmers in Uganda

“…Studies have further confirmed that ICTs stimulate cognitive and innovative behavior but also streamlines processes which fosters the ability to process and share more information for decision-making (Kravchenko, 2021;Munir and Beh, 2019;Harju et al, 2023;Hussain et al, 2023). In the agriculture sector, basic ICTs like mobile phones and televisions have bridged the information gaps created by the inaccessibility of extension workers and prevalent costs associated with reaching out to official government outreach centres (Byamukama et al, 2022;Subramanian, Bozzola and Nugent, 2022;Ravindra et al, 2020). While the benefits of using ICTs are vivid, acceptance maybe influenced by the perception an individual has about the complexity and usefulness of the said technology moderated by contextual variables like social influence (Ali et al, 2020;Gani et al, 2022;Li and Wang, 2022;Nyagango et al, 2023;Silva et al, 2023).…”

“…The findings had several practical implications for managers and policymakers as they demonstrated that a combination of salient tools can boost information literacy levels among SHFs. Promoting information literacy requires adoption of tools like ICT, information culture and proper use of language in promoting information literacy (Munir and Beh, 2019; Byamukama et al. , 2022).…”

“…The findings had several practical implications for managers and policymakers as they demonstrated that a combination of salient tools can boost information literacy levels among SHFs. Promoting information literacy requires adoption of tools like ICT, information culture and proper use of language in promoting information literacy (Munir and Beh, 2019;Byamukama et al, 2022). Specifically, practitioners should also prioritize social factors like information culture when crafting information literacy interventions, as it highly affects what is regarded as information in a socially inclined communities like those of farmers.…”