Predictors of ICTs Adoption as Source of Market Information Accessibility and Rice Crop Production Among Small Holder Youth Farmers in Morogoro-Tanzania

Abstract

Innovation of information and communication technology in the agriculture brought about opportunities among rural farmers globally. This paper focused on analyzing determinants of adopting the ICTs as means of accessing the market related information on rice crop production. The study employed a fourth stage sampling design to select a representative sample of 600 youth. By fitting chi- square and logistic regression model, the results revealed that the decision of farmers to adopt ICTs is mainly influenced by personal an economic factor such as education level, household size personal income, cost of technology and land size. In was further revealed that technological and institutional factors are also significant predictor of farmers decision. The findings imply that the use of new technology particularly ICTs in accessing market information is a proper means of minimizing the related cost of production. This means that the use of ICT is a solution to the barriers on acquiring the appropriate market information timely.