Government initiatives like M-Kilimo and e-Kilimo were established to provide farming advice and market data, but response times of up to two weeks force growers back to conventional auctions, meetings, and broadcasts. A 2024 study revealed that despite 7.2 million registrations on M-Kilimo, roughly 400,000 sign-ups remained incomplete due to digital literacy issues with basic USSD codes. In response, authorities have launched the $3.62 million Data for Digital Agricultural Transformation Joint Programme spanning from September 2024 to August 2027. This initiative intends to train 500 extension workers and boost digital skills among 500,000 farmers, while the Ministry of Agriculture has not…
Key points
Digital literacy barriers and complex USSD systems prevent registered farmers from succes…: Digital literacy barriers and complex USSD systems prevent registered farmers from successfully adopting state agricultural tools.
Slow communication channels compel rural producers to depend on public meetings, radio br…: Slow communication channels compel rural producers to depend on public meetings, radio broadcasts, and traditional crop auctions.
The state transformation program aims to improve platform usage by training 500 extension…: The state transformation program aims to improve platform usage by training 500 extension officers and 500,000 smallholders.
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Poor training and delayed responses leave farmers struggling to access useful market information.
Dodoma region, Tanzania – Theresia Abel Nyoka has received messages on her phone about M-Kilimo and e-Kilimo, digital services designed to help farmers, but she has never registered for either.
“It is simply because we have not been given education. I do not know their importance or benefits,” she told Al Jazeera by phone from Paranga village in central Tanzania’s Dodoma region.
M-Kilimo, a Ministry of Agriculture mobile service, provides market information and farming advice, allows farmers to advertise produce and enables them to ask agricultural extension workers for help. The broader e-Kilimo platform brings government agricultural services together through a website and smartphone app.
Nyoka instead relies on a system she understands. She takes her produce to a warehouse operated through her Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Society (AMCOS), where farmers pool crops for sale at organised auctions during the marketing season.
Jeremiah Luwe, 49, a maize and pigeon pea farmer from Ngomai village in Kongwa district, has tried using M-Kilimo on his smartphone. But he says responses…
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