Resumo

MOGASHANE, C.  e  LOKI, O.. Farmer's Perception and Adoption of Digital Technologies as Information Sources for Farming Activities in the City of Tshwane, Gauteng. S Afr. Jnl. Agric. Ext. [online]. 2025, vol.53, n.5, pp.22-44. ISSN 2413-3221.  https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3221/2025/v53n5a21092.

Smallholder farmers are challenged by limited resources, finances, and access to complex production technologies, which hinder the implementation of good production practices such as good seed selection, knowing when to plant and harvest, pest and disease control, and access to lucrative markets. Using quantitative research methods, this paper explored smallholder farmers' perceptions, adoptions, and differences in agricultural incomes between adopting and non-adopting farmers. This study reveals that smallholder farmers perceive access to real-time information as important; however, the adoption of digital technologies as information sources remains low. A binary regression analysis further revealed that the access to extension services variable positively correlated with the adoption of the internet (web pages), YouTube, and the Farmers Weekly website as information sources. Digital technologies were generally perceived to be reliable, time-effective, and easy to use; however, adopting these technologies had no significant impact on the farmer's agricultural income. The overall perception of digital technologies was that they are easy to use, reliable, easily accessible, and cost-effective. This paper concludes that digital technology adoption remains considerably low; however, more and more farmers are not only open to adopting this technology, but those who have adopted it also prefer incorporating it among the sources they use to acquire farming information. Using digital technologies did not cause differences in agricultural incomes for these farmers. This study recommends public-private partnerships and community engagement through cooperatives to further drive technology adoption, thereby fostering market access and improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

Palavras-chave : Smallholder Farmer; Perception; Adoption; Digital Technology.

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