ICT for universal access to agricultural information: The case of Malawian farmers

This paper assesses whether ICTs used in Malawi's agriculture sector can have an impact in improving the livelihood of farmers. Social factors together with level of technology adoption are important elements for success of ICT4D initiatives for farmers; hence, consideration of these factors when implementing ICT4D projects is very important. Illiteracy levels amongst rural farmers and the level of technology adoption will be our main focus. While most papers have discussed the impact of ICTs in Agriculture; socio-technical attributes that affect the outcome of the projects have not been fully explored. The main purpose of this paper is to assess how ICT4D initiatives can be contextualized so as to benefit the rural farmers who are both illiterate and do not use the most advanced mobile phones. The use of Interactive Voice Response System (IVR) to come up with a low cost phone service that use voice as a way of communication to farmers has been explored. The results suggest that ICT can play a significant role in improving farming productivity, although there are many challenges to be addressed. The study recommends that socio-technical factors should be considered in order for Malawi's ICT4D initiatives in agriculture to have a positive impact.