Tanzania’s Smallholder Farmers Struggle to Turn Digital Agriculture Into Market Gains

Smallholder farmers in Tanzania’s Dodoma region are struggling to benefit from digital agriculture services, with limited training, restricted access to suitable phones and delayed responses reducing the usefulness of platforms designed to connect them with markets and agricultural advice.

M-Kilimo, a Ministry of Agriculture mobile service, provides market information and farming guidance, allows farmers to advertise their produce and offers access to agricultural extension workers. Some of its functions are available through USSD, meaning they can be accessed on basic mobile phones without an internet connection.

The government’s e-Kilimo platform is intended to bring agricultural services together through a website and smartphone application. But farmers interviewed in Dodoma described persistent difficulties understanding, registering for and using the services.

Training and response delays remain concerns

Theresia Abel Nyoka, a farmer from Paranga village, said she had received messages about M-Kilimo and e-Kilimo but had not registered for either service because she had not been informed about their purpose or benefits.

“It is simply because we have not been given education. I do not know their importance or benefits,” Nyoka said.

Jeremiah Luwe, a maize and pigeon pea farmer from Ngomai village in Kongwa district, said he had tried M-Kilimo but responses to questions about markets and agricultural inputs could take up to two weeks. He continued to rely on public meetings, auctions and media reports for market information.

“Sometimes the information arrives too late to be useful. The government should provide a faster system that responds on time and connects us to markets and other farmers,” Luwe said.

Other farmers described relying on traditional channels. Adam Rashidi, a pigeon pea and sesame farmer from Kingale village, uses a basic mobile phone and obtains market information through organised auctions and the traditional market. Shaban Omary, who does not have a smartphone, said he receives price information from television.

Shaban Ndatwa, chairman of the Kingale Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Society, said he had attended seminars on the Tanzania Mercantile Exchange but had neither registered nor received training on how to use it.

“I can see that people still do not understand the systems properly,” Ndatwa said.

Registration figures do not show practical impact

A 2024 study using Ministry of Agriculture information reported about 7.2 million farmers registered on M-Kilimo. The figures also included 9,985 extension workers and experts, 24,523 customers and 26,927 sellers of agricultural products. M-Kilimo recorded 75,623 advisory consultations, of which 73,839 had received replies, while about 400,000 registrations were incomplete.

Those figures do not establish how many farmers actively used the service or whether its responses improved farming and marketing decisions. No comparable usage figures for e-Kilimo were provided.

Vedalinda Asiya, a 35-year-old sesame and maize farmer from Chilanjilizi village in Kongwa district, registered for M-Kilimo after a friend introduced her to it. She said the service had not provided the market prices and timely agricultural information she needed.

“I have not seen its direct benefits. It does not give me market information, particularly prices. I have only seen information about subsidised fertiliser, which I followed up on and accessed,” Asiya said.

The report also found that none of the interviewed farmers could identify someone they knew who had earned more through M-Kilimo or e-Kilimo. That finding does not establish that the platforms have failed nationally.

Calls for village-level support

Praygod Malisa, an agriculture specialist with Rikolto East Africa in Tanzania, said larger farmers often have an advantage because they know where buyers are, hold contracts and can store produce until prices rise. Smallholders, he said, may sell quickly because they need money and may not know where to find wider markets.

Malisa identified training, smartphone and SIM-card access, connectivity and cost as barriers to digital agriculture. He urged programmes to reach farmers in their villages and said success should be assessed through benefits and measurable results rather than registration totals.

“We need to know how many farmers were reached, how many benefitted and whether there is real data and evidence of success,” he said.

Kadeghe Goodluck Fue of Sokoine University of Agriculture said farmers need information on prices, buyers and markets beyond their immediate areas to make better production and marketing decisions. Cooperatives, organised auctions and commodity markets already provide routes to buyers, while digital services could supplement them by offering timely prices, identifying buyers and widening market access.

Mahadia Tunga, cofounder and executive director of the Tanzania Data Lab, suggested using communication networks that farmers already trust, including WhatsApp groups managed by extension officers, alongside offline support.

The government is investing $3.62 million in the Data for Digital Agricultural Transformation Joint Programme, which runs from September 2024 to August 2027. The programme aims to strengthen agricultural data systems, improve digital literacy for 500,000 farmers and train 500 government extension workers.

The Ministry of Agriculture did not respond to requests for comment on concerns about training and the performance of M-Kilimo and e-Kilimo.