How prepared are local farmers to embrace the digital revolution

cial media networks are favourable to the farming cause. These digital tools and networks are there to educate farmers. How ready are farming communities to be digital compliant is another challenge.

Good as this may sound, there are also associated challenges that can militate against the ease of doing farming. Farmers in remote areas can experience connectivity challenges, including access to data and they may be cut off from farming groups and markets.

Being in possession of a mobile phone is one issue while its ability to provide required services may be another issue.

Farmers need to keep in touch with groups and communities, including mechanisation companies to be abreast with the fast changes taking place in the farming world.

These include new methods of farming, improved seed varieties, fertilisers, crop varieties, adaptable dairy breeds, hybrid small livestock, cheaper and accessible irrigation materials, including energy-saving and environmentally friendly equipment.

Farmers also need to be informed and guard against unscrupulous and corrupt middle-persons, aiming to rip them off.

The other issue is the nature and type of a mobile phone that one possesses, some mobile phones are for calling and receiving calls, and are not internet compliant.

In this regard, such poor farmers would have challenges in staying upto-date and keep in touch with other stakeholders.

Furthermore, their remoteness and peripheral nature may not enable them to keep up-to-date with weather and climate phenomena which require their attention and preparedness.

Not all farmers will benefit from agricultural and climate research which is designed to improve their knowledge of farming and make decisions based on improved information dissemination.

When connectivity and networking is available, issues of distance will not matter, but when there is no networking, then there could be limited information dissemination, including research innovations.

Above all, even when the information may be available, gaps may emanate from information currency and lack of ownership.

Indeed, yes, farmers may fail to relate and associate the information disseminated with their local experiences, traditional knowledge and networks.

The other concern is literacy levels to enable them to put the acquired information into practice in order to shape their livelihoods.

Furthermore, information sources, institutions and holders may also not disseminate information according to farmers’ needs and expectations. In this regard, entrenched institutional biases may become synonymous with the information providers or even the types of digital tools to be used.

Issues of ICT tools compliance may also come into play with regards to the Microsoft and Windows types they are using, some may be up-to-date while the rest may not be up-to-date at all, thereby disadvantaging unsuspecting farmers.

Furthermore, information providers may not have the opportunity to train farmers on how farming transformation should be used and applied. Even when the information is available, the majority of farmers may lack guidance and training.

Although these digital tools are advantageous to farmers as they can easily communicate with other stakeholders and collaborate farming activities, the uptake and results are not encouraging.

Even when farmers realise economic and environmental benefits, it is not quite certain if they will link these to digital transformation as many are heard praising the Lord for the harvests, although that is not bad, before they praise the Lord, they need to appreciate the path to transformation of agricultural production.

In other situations, the information on the internet needs to be streamlined to suit new requirements to inform new methodologies and that may retard economic or climate growth.

In this regard, it is futile for information providers to shout about the effectiveness of harnessing digital technologies for sustainable development without conscientising communities and stakeholders on the challenges associated with the new-found means of communicating agricultural production information.