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Despite the vast potential of mobile phone use, grape smallholder farmers’ satisfaction with mobile phone use has attracted insufficient attention among scholars in Tanzania. The study examined factors influencing satisfaction with mobile phone use for accessing agricultural marketing information.

The study used a cross-sectional research design and a mixed research method. Structured questionnaire and focus group discussions were used to collect primary data from 400 sampled grape smallholder farmers. Data were analysed inferentially involving two-way analysis of variance, ordinal logistic regression and thematic analysis.

The findings indicate a statistically significant disparity in grape smallholder farmers’ satisfaction across different types of agricultural marketing information. Grape smallholder farmers exhibited higher satisfaction levels concerning information on selling time compared to all other types of agricultural marketing information (price, buyers, quality and quantity). Factors influencing grape smallholder farmers’ satisfaction with mobile phone use were related to perceived usefulness, ease of use, experience and cost.

This study contributes to scientific knowledge by providing actionable insights for formulating unique strategies for smallholder farmers’ satisfaction with agricultural marketing information.

This study explores digital transformation in the tea supply chain within developing economies, with a focus on smallholder tea producers in Sri Lanka. Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. Among the tea producers, smallholder tea producers account for a substantial portion of total tea production in several countries. Mobile phones play a significant role in providing smallholder producers with access to crucial agricultural information, markets and financial services.

This study adopts a deductive approach, analysing mobile phone ownership, literacy, experience and perception among smallholder tea producers. The chi-squared test of independence and hierarchical clustering methods were used to test the hypotheses and address the research questions.

The study identifies four clusters of smallholder tea producers as Basic Tech Adopters, Digital Laggards, Skeptical Feature Phone Users and Tech-savvy Adopters based on their characteristics towards mobile-based technologies. Approximately 75% of the surveyed sample, which included both tech-savvy and basic-tech adopters, showed a positive attitude toward adopting mobile-based agricultural technologies.

The study suggests developing targeted strategies and policies to enhance the productivity of the smallholder tea production process in developing economies. The study highlights the importance of awareness, access, affordability and availability when implementing digital services for businesses at the base of the pyramid, such as tea smallholdings in developing economies.

The present study aims to address the lack of data-driven empirical studies on the use of mobile phones in smallholder settings. The findings of this study enable the enhancement of entrepreneurship within the tea production supply chain, especially, within stakeholders who deliver digital transformation support services.

This study aims to assess barriers in accessing and uptaking climate change adaptation information among smallholder tomato farmers in Tanzania.

This study was conducted in Iringa and Morogoro regions, Tanzania. It adopted cross-sectional research design. Multistage, purposive and random sampling techniques with a sample size of 183 smallholder tomato farmers were used. Questionnaires containing closed- and open-ended questions, interview guide and focus group discussions were used to collect data. To ensure validity and reliability of data collection instruments, pretesting of the questionnaires was conducted by administering them to a small group of smallholder tomato growers. Statistical Product and Service Solutions software was used to analyse quantitative data while NVivo was used for analysing qualitative data.

Lack of clear understanding of climate change information (132, 72.1%), scarcity of libraries and information centres (125, 68.3%), inadequate income (125, 68.3%), lack of trust of sources of information (114, 62.3%), lack of sufficient knowledge about climate change (111, 60%), illiteracy (110, 60.1%), poor distribution of electricity in rural areas (109, 59.6%) and use of jargons (93, 50.8%) in explaining climate change adaptation issues are hindrances for smallholder tomato farmers to access and uptake climate change adaptation information.

This study was conducted in only two districts in Tanzania; thus, the findings cannot be generalized.

The government and relevant agencies are recommended to use appropriate strategies for breaking the barriers that impede easy access and uptake of climate change adaptation information by smallholder tomato farmers as one of the interventions to combat the impacts posed by climate change.

This study has contributed to the ongoing discourses on climate change issues. Such discourses have influenced attention and understanding of the role of access and uptake of climate change adaptation information by smallholder farmers for planning and implementation of adaptation strategies through awareness creation.

This study is in line with goal number 13.3 of Sustainable Development Goals, which vows on taking necessary actions in combating climate change and its impacts. Thus, smallholder tomato farmers’ awareness about climate change through access and uptake of climate change adaptation information is one of the interventions to combat climate change and its impacts.

The approach to integrate concepts from different disciplines so as to solve the problems facing smallholder farmers has gained momentum in recent years. However, very little is known about how word-of-mouth (WOM) dimensions can be used in agricultural marketing to explain market participation among smallholder farmers. Therefore, this study investigates the perceived usefulness of WOM in explaining smallholder farmers’ market participation.

The cross-sectional design was carried out to survey a sample of 467 smallholder farmers. This study used partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 4 to test hypotheses.

The results revealed that WOM dimensions such as expertise differential, strong tie and trustworthiness among smallholder farmers significantly influence the WOM message delivery. Likewise, the findings suggest that WOM message delivery significantly influences market participation among smallholder farmers. Finally, it was revealed that WOM message delivery significantly mediates the relationship between WOM dimensions and market participation.

This study provides useful insights to smallholder farmers on how to use WOM dimensions to enhance more market participation in formal markets, especially through proper WOM message delivery.

The current study solves the problem of information asymmetry among smallholder farmers through WOM. It is perhaps the first study to establish the link between WOM dimensions and market participation among smallholder farmers in the context of developing countries.

Agrifood value chains in developing countries are transforming into higher value markets which require sustainable practices, with smallholders playing a critical role. However, smallholders are a heterogeneous group which may have discrepancies in outcomes to meet sustainability standards. This paper aims to empirically investigate smallholders' heterogeneity towards sustainable value chain practice in developing countries.

Eight key enabling factors of sustainable value chain transformation were used to explore smallholders' typology, then profiled, based on their socio-economic status and current practices. A quantitative method was applied in Indonesia's cashew sector with 159 respondents from the primary producer area on Madura Island. A combination of descriptive analysis, cluster analysis, cross-tab analysis and one-way ANOVA analysis was used in this study.

Four types of groups were identified, each with distinct characteristics and arranged in priority order as follows: accelerator, progressor, inattentive and conservative groups. Interventions can be implemented on per clusters basis or based on potential similarities among clusters, depending on priority. It is noted that the pursuit of sustainable value chain practices by smallholders is not necessarily associated with high socio-economic status, as those with low socio-economic status may have a stronger inclination towards them.

The paper enhances awareness of practitioners and policymakers regarding smallholders' heterogeneity in sustainable value chain practice. It enables more effective and focused interventions to support smallholders who require assistance in sustainable production and value-adding activities. Different smallholders' characteristics call for different assistance/intervention. Practitioners can recognise smallholders' characteristics that are more compatible with higher value markets and sustainability requirements to better integrate their practices. Policymakers must carefully develop short-term and long-term interventions based on the activities prioritised by particular traits to “hit the right button” for smallholders' practice development.

This study investigates the typology of smallholders towards sustainable value chain practices by using eight enabling factors and profiling them based on their socio-economic condition and current practices. Additionally, this study shifts the focus of typology exploration away from the traditional lens of farm sustainability to a larger perspective which encompasses sustainable value chain activities.

This paper proposes an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platform to increase the sustainability and resilience of smallholders to face supply chain disruptions in the event of COVID-like crises. The platform facilitates interactions between smallholders and buyers, workers and freight transport companies in agri-food ecosystems. Furthermore, this research work presents the implementation of the freight transport companies’ platform module.

The research work begins with a literature review aiming at analyzing current available ICT solutions supporting smallholders and other actors in the agri-food supply chain. This analysis identifies the research gaps which have to be filled by the platform. Then, the authors proceed with the analysis of the operational scenarios of each platform actor by interacting with experts and operators working in the agri-food sector. The results of such analysis resulted in a comprehensive, unambiguous and consistent set of specification being used to define the platform structure and modules architecture. The platform modules have been developed by using the web-application framework Laravel.

Preliminary tests show that the proposed platform is usable and promises to improve the resilience and economic, social and environmental sustainability of agri-food supply chains, with a focus on smallholders.

The research work allows players in the agri-food supply chain and in particular small local producers to react and mitigate the impact of COVID-like crises through development of a platform in which smallholders, citizens (buyers and workers) and freight transport companies are simultaneously present.

The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that shape the adoption of mobile phones for vegetable marketing by Vietnamese smallholders.

A structured questionnaire was given to 185 smallholders randomly chosen from 345 vegetable smallholders in the Vinh Thanh district of Vietnam. Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and a binary logistic regression were applied to analyse the data.

The research results show that the smallholders’ adoption of mobile phones for vegetable marketing is significantly affected by their number of extension contacts, distance from smallholders’ homes to local markets, community-based organisation participation, gender, training/credit programme participation, age, education level, income and farm size (χ² = 143,111, p < 0.000).

A combination of factors related to socio-economic, situational and institutional characteristics of smallholders should be considered when promoting smallholders’ uptake of mobile phones for vegetable marketing in developing nations.

This research provides useful insights into the determinants of mobile phone adoption for vegetable marketing by smallholders and highlights areas that need to be considered when designing policies to improve the uptake of information and communication technologies in developing countries.

Smallholder farmers in Tanzania were investigated in this paper to determine the dimensions and influence of psychological contracts on smallholder farmers' decisions to participate in the market.

Data were collected through structured questionnaires, of which a cross-sectional design was conducted in central Tanzania, the Dodoma region in which 467 smallholder farmers were surveyed. First, a preliminary Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted by involving psychological contracts and market participation items derived from previous studies. This was followed by the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to verify the items obtained in the EFA. The regression analysis was then performed to test the causal effects of psychological contracts on market participation among smallholder farmers.

The path analysis revealed that transactional, relational, and ideological contracts have a positive and statistically significant impact on the participation of smallholder farmers in the market. Therefore, smallholder farmers have own set of expectations for participating in the marketplace. As a result, smallholder farmers' relationships with market participation decisions can be strengthened.

This study covered only smallholder farmers. However, future studies can include large-scale farmers, because psychological contracts and market participation difficulties also apply to them. This may increase the generalizability of the findings.

Past studies have not extensively covered the psychological contracts in smallholder farming, especially in market participation. Based on prior empirical and theoretical research from other disciplines, the findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of the psychological contract framework and the significance of multiple psychological obligations between smallholder farmers and market management.

This study aims to reconstruct how smallholder farmers implement livelihood adaptation strategies to survive and escape poverty, thereby mitigating or eliminating potential livelihood risks by utilizing their available assets.

This research employed a qualitative approach. For the collection of primary data, the researcher conducted observations and in-depth interviews and engaged with the lives of smallholder farmers during the data collection period.

Among the various livelihood adaptation strategies, only migration and profit-sharing strategies enable smallholder farmers to escape poverty. However, migration is an unsustainable adaptation strategy. When farmers move to new locations, they often resort to slash-and-burn methods for clearing land, which can lead to forest degradation and deforestation. Profit sharing is a sustainable livelihood adaptation strategy that falls into a different category. This approach can lift farmers out of poverty, increase their income and have no negative environmental impact. Other adaptation strategies include adjustments to traditional agriculture, both on and off-farm diversification, involving the family in income generation, reducing farming costs, practicing frugality in post-harvest processes, converting land from coffee cultivation to other crops and borrowing money and selling owned assets. Smallholder farmers implement these strategies to survive the existing economic conditions.

The profit-sharing strategy was a novel livelihood adaptation approach that previous studies had yet to uncover at the research site. In this strategy, farmers assume the roles of both managers and laborers simultaneously during farming, while toke (the capital owners) play the role of farming funders. The generated profit is then shared between farmers and toke based on the agreement established at the outset of their collaboration.

This study aimed to develop and test the impact of a social media-based intervention for improving the business skills and income of young smallholder farmers.

First, the researchers used an exploratory approach to develop a social media-based intervention for acquiring business skills and improving income. Second, the researchers tested the effectiveness of the developed programme on a sample of 506 young smallholder farmers. Finally, the intervention and data collection took place over five years (2017–2021).

The result showed steady improvements in business skills and income from 2017 to 2021 for the treatment group, unlike the control group. Also, improvements in business skills led to a reduction in expenses and an increase in profit from 2017 to 2021. A further evaluation of the result showed that an addition of 5.1 mean scores in business skills led to the addition of $91 income between 2017 and 2018; for 2018–2019, 2.6 improvements in business skills increased income by $123. For 2019–2020, a 2.7 improvement increased income by $209, whilst for 2020–2021, a 1.6 improvement increased income by $320.

The results of this study could help explore ways of using social media to change behaviour aimed at improving income amongst young smallholder farmers.