ICTs and Agricultural Marketing in Africa: A Review

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have a great role to change the existing traditional agricultural system in developing countries. Through application of ICTs in agriculture it is possible to; make efficient information dissemination, bring precision agriculture and increase market access of farmers. Currently, In developing countries majority of rural farmers’ have access to ICT tools, however, most of the farmers have no enough awareness on the significance role of ICTs for agricultural marketing and its subsequent impact on welfare improvement. Thus this review paper is designed to assess ICTs use in agricultural marketing in Africa. The result of this review paper signified that ICTs and agricultural marketing had positive association, in which through application of ICTs in agricu0ltural marketing it is possible to reduce transaction cost, disseminate updated market information and improve the rural farmers’ linkage to market. Moreover, ICTs have also the power to increase farm productivity, income and hence improve the food security status of farmers. Therefore, improving awareness of the rural communities and establishing agricultural information system at the country level is crucial to magnify the potential role of ICTs in agricultural marketing.

Keywords: ICTs; Agricultural Marketing; Welfare

DOI: 10.7176/IKM/9-10-02

Publication date: November 30^th 2019