Determinants of use of Kenya agricultural commodity exchange ict: the case of smallholder farmers in Bungoma county, Kenya

Abstract

Smallholder farmers’ access to markets has traditionally been constrained by lack of market information. Efforts to strengthen access of farmers to markets has triggered the mushrooming of a number of projects that embrace ICT tools in promoting access to competitive market information. Nevertheless, most farmers still lack access to accurate market information such as commodity prices. This study examines the determinants of the use of ICT tools by Kenya Agricultural Commodity Exchange (KACE) among smallholder farmers for agricultural transactions. The data used for this study were collected in 2011 from smallholder farmers in Bungoma South and Central Sub-Counties. The two Sub-Counties were purposively selected because of being the hub of KACE activities. Multi-stage sampling was used to select 136 households for interview using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Farmer characteristics, farm and capital endowment factors affected use of ICT tools, particularly mobile phones. Occupation, farming experience, age, literacy and crop income explained use of tools. Household size, crop income, gender, level of literacy, owning a mobile phone, nearness to output market, level of literacy and crop income explained intensity of use of the mobile phones. The paper further discusses the policy implications of the findings. Keywords: ICT, market, Mobile phones, Agriculture, Market access