Assessment of ICT Infrastructure in Rural Areas to Support the Use of Websites to Disseminate Crop Production and Management Information: Case of Tanzania

The focus of this study was to assess the availability of ICT infrastructure in Tanzania’s rural areas and the willingness of smallholder farmers to learn crop production and management skills using websites. ICT infrastructure forms the backbone upon which ICT services can be built and offered to users, be they individuals or businesses. Respondents for this study were smallholder farmers who own mobile phones, selected randomly from five (5) out of seven (7) main agroecological zones in Tanzania. A total of 736 respondents were involved in the study. A questionnaire and documentary reviews were used to collect data. Findings show that the majority of smallholder farmers own basic phones, followed by smartphones and feature phones. Smallholder farmers can afford to buy Internet bundles, do not see Internet speed as a problem, and charging mobile phones is not a problem either, and are willing to learn crop production and management skills using websites. Lastly, Tanzania has ICT policies and rules in place to make sure that the technology can be used and grown in a smooth way.