Towards Sustainable Digital Agriculture for Smallholder Farmers: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Smallholder farmers are key contributors to food security globally, and more so in developing countries. Despite their critical role in food security, smallholder farmers are highly constrained by specific contextual challenges such as climate change, productivity, cost of production, credit access, and financial resources constraints that impact their sustenance, sustainability, and growth. Digital agriculture has emerged as a viable solution to addressing smallholder farmers’ contextual challenges, with many digital solutions already existing and developed to serve the agriculture sector. However, many smallholder farmers are beyond the reach of these digital solutions due to underdeveloped or nonexistent digital ecosystems. This paper reports on a systematic review conducted to examine the research that has been undertaken regarding digital agriculture ecosystems in relation to smallholder farmers and to identify challenges, usage, benefits, access, and uptake of the systems. The key findings reveal very limited research directed at digital literacy or skills, affordability, and business model innovation. Most of the challenges concern digital infrastructure, affordability, and digital literacy or skills. The findings also reveal that although digital agriculture is still a nascent concept to smallholder farmers, there are a few early adopters who access information mainly related to agriculture, selling, and marketing. There is, nonetheless, a lack of understanding of the value of digital agriculture systems. The study develops a research agenda that could facilitate digital transformation for smallholder farmers.