IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i17p13149-d1230642.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital Literacy of Smallholder Farmers in Tanzania

Author

Listed:
  • 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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Mawazo Magesa & Joan Jonathan & Justin Urassa, 2023. "Digital Literacy of Smallholder Farmers in Tanzania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-22, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:17:p:13149-:d:1230642
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/13149/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/13149/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Banu Inan Karagul & Meral Seker & Cansu Aykut, 2021. "Investigating Students’ Digital Literacy Levels during Online Education Due to COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-11, October.
    2. Ignatov Aleksandr & Larionova Marina & Popova Irina & Sakharov A. & Shelepov A., 2020. "Russia in international economic institutions," Published Papers ppaper-2020-1060, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, revised 2020.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ziyang Zhou & Ziwei Li & Guangyan Chen & Jinpeng Zou & Mingling Du & Fang Wang, 2024. "Digital Literacy Level and Formal Credit Constraints: Probit Analysis of Farm Households’ Borrowing Behavior in China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-20, May.
    2. Mishal Trevor Morepje & Moses Zakhele Sithole & Nomzamo Sharon Msweli & Azikiwe Isaac Agholor, 2024. "The Influence of E-Commerce Platforms on Sustainable Agriculture Practices among Smallholder Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-24, July.
    3. Jianling Qi & Huanjiao Li & Wenlong Li & Jing Jin & Feng Ye, 2024. "The Influence of Digital Skills on Farm Households’ Vulnerability to Relative Poverty: Implications for the Sustainability of Farmers’ Livelihoods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-18, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andreea Barbu & Mirona Ana Maria Popescu & Georgiana Moiceanu, 2022. "Perspective of Teachers and Students towards the Education Process during COVID-19 in Romanian Universities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-21, March.
    2. Zhonggen Yu, 2022. "Sustaining Student Roles, Digital Literacy, Learning Achievements, and Motivation in Online Learning Environments during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-14, April.
    3. Renata Rutkauskaite & Milda Koreivaite & Diana Karanauskiene & Brigita Mieziene, 2022. "Students’ Skills and Experiences Using Information and Communication Technologies in Remote Physical Education Lessons," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-15, November.
    4. Mercedes Gumbau-Albert & Joaquín Maudos, 2022. "The importance of intangible assets in regional economic growth: a growth accounting approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(2), pages 361-390, October.
    5. Livia CEBOTARI, 2021. "Eu-Russian Economic Relations: From Cooperation To Confrontation," EURINT, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 8, pages 41-55, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:17:p:13149-:d:1230642. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.