Digital Literacy of Smallholder Farmers in Tanzania

Mawazo Magesa (), Joan Jonathan and Justin Urassa
Additional contact information
Mawazo Magesa: Department of Informatics and Information Technology, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro P.O. Box 3038, Tanzania
Joan Jonathan: Department of Informatics and Information Technology, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro P.O. Box 3038, Tanzania
Justin Urassa: Department of Policy, Planning and Management, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro P.O. Box 3035, Tanzania

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 17, 1-22

Abstract: The objective of this study was to assess the digital literacy of smallholder farmers in their agricultural production activities. Based on six proposed factors, the researchers developed questions to guide studying and measuring digital literacy (DL) of smallholder farmers. On a 5-point Likert scale, 23 questions measured the ability of smallholders to access, manage, interpret, evaluate, create and communicate agriculture information online. Moreover, 257 smallholder farmers were involved in the study. To measure DL level, descriptive statistics and mean scores for the responses were calculated. A comparison of low and high levels of DL with demographic variables was conducted. The item-wise distribution of responses show that smallholders have high DL in accessing and communicating information, while they had low DL in managing, integrating, evaluating and creating information. The item’s mean score reveals that most of the responses were average. The overall mean score for the questionnaire was 75.17 + 5.79, and based on demographic characteristics, 58.0% of the smallholders reported high DL. Overall, smallholder farmers have an average level of DL. The study findings of this study may help governments and responsible institutions to develop strategies to ensure smallholders are digitally literate and use digital technologies in agricultural activities.

Keywords: digital literacy; smallholder farmers; confirmatory factor analysis; digital community; reliability of information; Tanzania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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