book
A persistent divide remains between the theoretical capabilities of digital tools and their practical adoption across farming communities and agricultural businesses. Literature connecting information and communication technologies with agribusiness remains limited, especially for developing-world and African contexts. This foundational text provides an overview and evidence synthesis examining how technology intersects with modern agriculture. Rather than presenting digital tools as universal solutions, the work assesses the systemic barriers to effective adoption. These challenges include deficits in rural infrastructure, high technology costs, low digital literacy, and persistent gender disparities in access. Without addressing these constraints, commercial agricultural digitalisation risks leaving smallholder farmers further behind. The text aims to equip students, researchers, extension workers, policymakers, and industry practitioners with a grounded understanding of the prerequisites needed for equitable, practical, and effective digital transformation across agricultural systems.
Modernising agriculture through digital technology holds substantial promise, but technology alone cannot resolve complex rural challenges. By examining structural constraints like uneven access, limited skills, and poor infrastructure, this work highlights what is required to make digital farming tools work equitably. It offers vital guidance for designing interventions that support smallholder farmers and broader agricultural communities rather than deepening existing inequalities.
The abstract describes an educational synthesis rather than a proprietary technology, indicating no direct commercialisation pathway or readiness level. However, agribusiness professionals, extension practitioners, and policymakers can apply the insights to evaluate digital tools, assess adoption barriers, and guide the deployment of commercially viable agricultural interventions suited to communities constrained by infrastructure and affordability challenges.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
The idea for this book grew out of a simple but persistent observation: that the gap between what digital technology can do for agriculture and what it is actually doing for the farmers, communities and businesses that need it most remains wide and that one of the reasons it remains wide is that accessible, comprehensive and scholarly literature bridging ICT and agribusiness is still relatively scarce, particularly literature written with African and developing-world contexts in mind. This book is an attempt to contribute to closing that gap. It is written for the student who is encountering the relationship between technology and agriculture for the first time and needs a clear, well-organised introduction to the field. It is written for the researcher who needs a reliable synthesis of the evidence on how ICT is transforming agricultural systems. It is written for the extension officer or development practitioner who wants to understand the tools and technologies increasingly entering the communities they serve. It is written for the policymaker or industry professional who needs a grounded, critical perspective on both the promise and the limitations of digital transformation in agriculture. The book does not take an uncritical position toward technology. Digital tools are not magic solutions to the complex, multidimensional challenges facing agricultural systems, and this book says so plainly. Infrastructure gaps, affordability constraints, digital literacy deficits, gender inequalities in technology access and the risk of leaving smallholder farmers further behind as commercial agriculture digitalises are all addressed honestly and in depth. The goal is not to celebrate ICT but to understand it clearly enough to use it wisely, equitably and effectively. The authors hope that readers will embrace this book with a clearer understanding of what ICT offers agriculture, what conditions are required for that offer to be realised and what work remains to be done before digital transformation in agriculture truly serves everyone it could.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.70593/978-81-6632-014-9
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