In Tanzania, smallholder farmers fall behind on digital farm services for lack of training

Theresia Abel Nyoka, a farmer in Paranga village in Tanzania's central Dodoma region, 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.

Nyoka told Al Jazeera by phone: 'It is simply because we have not been given education. I do not know their importance or benefits.'

M-Kilimo is a Ministry of Agriculture mobile service. It 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 a 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 to questions about markets and agricultural inputs can take up to two weeks.

Luwe told Al Jazeera: '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.' He continues to rely on public meetings, auctions and media reports for market information.

The government is investing in the sector through the $3.62 million Data for Digital Agricultural Transformation Joint Programme, which runs from September 2024 to August 2027. The programme aims to strengthen agricultural data systems and expand access to digital services, with targets of improving digital literacy for 500,000 farmers and training 500 government extension workers.

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

A 2024 study drawing on Ministry of Agriculture information reported about 7.2 million registered farmers on M-Kilimo, alongside 9,985 extension workers and experts, 24,523 customers and 26,927 sellers of agricultural products.

The platform had recorded 75,623 advisory consultations, of which 73,839 had received replies, the study found. However, the figures do not establish how many farmers actively used the service or whether its responses helped them make better farming and marketing decisions.

The study also identified about 400,000 incomplete registrations and documented challenges with digital literacy and access. Some farmers struggled to use the USSD service, which allows people to access certain functions through basic mobile phones without an internet connection. No comparable figures have been published for e-Kilimo.

In Kingale village, Adam Rashidi grows pigeon peas and sesame on more than six hectares (15 acres). He uses a basic mobile phone and obtains market information through organised auctions. He said he would register if he were given education; he could not name anyone in Kingale who used M-Kilimo or e-Kilimo.

Shaban Omary, another pigeon pea farmer in Kingale, has no smartphone and gets price information from television. He said: 'If I knew how to use it, it would help me because I would know more and it could help me move forward.'

Shaban Ndatwa, chairman of the Kingale AMCOS, has attended seminars on the Tanzania Mercantile Exchange (TMX), the country's commodity exchange, but says he has not registered and has never received training on how to use it. He said: 'I can see that people still do not understand the systems properly.'

Praygod Malisa, an agriculture specialist with Rikolto East Africa in Tanzania, told Al Jazeera that larger farmers often have better access to market information. He said: 'They know where buyers are, hold contracts and can afford to store produce until prices rise.'