When mobile phones reach TZ farms, smallholders gain opportunities, but new digital divides emerge

DAR ES SALAAM: ACROSS Tanzania’s fields, a quiet agricultural revolution is taking shape in the palm of a farmer’s hand. The tool may not be a drone, a tractor or an expensive automated machine. It may simply be a mobile phone.

With it, a farmer can receive weather information before planting, search for advice when crops show signs of pests or disease, check market information, make digital payments and, in some cases, connect directly with buyers. What once required a physical visit to an extension officer, market or financial service can increasingly begin with a few taps or messages.

This is the promise of digital agriculture, a transformation that is reshaping how farmers access information, finance, markets and agricultural services. Yet beneath that promise lies a more important question: are Tanzania’s smallholder farmers actually benefiting from the digital transformation? The answer matters because agriculture remains the country’s largest source of employment.

The 2025 Integrated Labour Force Survey shows that agriculture accounted for 54.4 per cent of employment nationally, placing the sector at the centre of the livelihoods of millions of Tanzanians. For these farmers, however, digital agriculture is not necessarily about sophisticated machinery or futuristic farms. Its impact can begin with something as familiar as a phone.

A weather forecast arriving before planting can help a farmer think more carefully about timing. Information on crop diseases can help identify a problem before it spreads. Market information can influence where and when produce is sold. Mobile money can reduce the need to travel with cash and make some transactions easier.

The World Bank describes digital agriculture broadly, covering mobile advisory services, digital payments, weather information, e-commerce platforms, traceability systems, smart irrigation and artificial intelligence. The purpose is not simply to put technology into farmers’ hands. It is to use information and digital networks to support better decisions and improve connections across the agricultural economy. Tanzania has already begun building parts of that digital ecosystem.

The Government, with support from the World Bank, has been working to link the farmer registry with M-Kilimo, a mobile extension platform designed to provide services such as weather forecasting, pest and disease identification and early-warning messages. A national digital soil mapping exercise is also being developed to strengthen agricultural advisory services.

Further developments emerged in February 2026 when the Food and Agriculture Organisation highlighted Tanzania through its Digital Services Portfolio. The platform provides small-scale farmers with climate and agricultural information, while new tools include an AIpowered chatbot through which farmers can ask questions and receive advisory messages in local languages.

The system is also designed to provide information in areas where internet connectivity is limited or unavailable. That feature is important because digital agriculture can only be inclusive if it reaches farmers beyond well-connected urban and peri-urban communities. That combination matters because access to a device does not automatically translate into meaningful use.

One farmer may own a basic handset and have little digital literacy. Another may have a smartphone but struggle to afford data. A third may receive a weather forecast but not know how to convert the information into a practical decision about planting, irrigation or crop protection.

Research on digitalisation in Tanzania’s agricultural sector has found that access to credit, extension services, education and government support influences farmers’ adoption of digital technology. The same research reported perceived benefits in areas including extension services, pest management, market information and financial services.

A farmer cannot fully benefit from a digital platform if there is no affordable finance to buy inputs, no dependable market for the harvest, poor roads for transporting produce or insufficient agricultural expertise to complement information received through a phone. Consider the problem of selling produce.

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For many smallholders, deciding where and when to sell can be as important as producing the crop itself. When hundreds of farmers harvest at the same time, the sudden increase in supply can push prices down. Digital platforms could help reduce that information gap by providing market information and connecting producers with potential buyers. But such platforms cannot remove every obstacle.

A farmer may find a better price in another market and still be unable to reach it because of transport costs, poor roads or limited bargaining power. That is why digital agriculture should not be presented as a magic solution. Its greatest value may lie in reducing information gaps, improving coordination and helping farmers make better decisions, while existing agricultural and physical systems continue to carry the harvest.

As weather patterns become more difficult to predict, timely climate information can help farmers consider when to plant, how to manage water and how to protect crops. Recent FAO work in Tanzania has focused on making climate information more accessible and actionable for small-scale farmers.

A warning of heavy rainfall may arrive in time, but if a farmer has no drainage system, irrigation alternative or suitable seed, the practical benefit of that warning may remain limited. The challenge is therefore not simply delivering information; it is creating conditions in which information can lead to action.

AI-powered agricultural tools are beginning to offer farmers immediate responses to questions about crops, pests and farming practices. For someone who cannot easily reach an agricultural extension officer, such a tool could provide an additional source of guidance. But AI advice must still be reliable, locally relevant and understandable. Farming conditions differ from one area to another, and advice that appears technically sound may not suit a particular crop, soil, climate or farming system.

The World Bank has noted that digital tools can help address shortages in agricultural advisory services. At the same time, it warns that better-connected and larger farms may benefit first when poorer farmers, women and remote communities face greater barriers to devices, data and digital skills. A farmer with a smartphone, reliable internet access and finance can use digital services in ways that are very different from a farmer relying on a basic handset in an area with weak network coverage.

This means Tanzania’s digital agricultural transformation should not be judged simply by the number of platforms launched, applications developed or users registered. A more meaningful measure is whether ordinary farmers are actually using the services and whether those services improve their livelihoods. The country already has experience with mobile-based agricultural services.

Earlier digital initiatives provided farmers with agricultural information, while eHakiki was introduced to help farmers verify the authenticity of seeds and pesticides. The World Bank has also documented the use of mobile phones and digital financial services among Tanzanian smallholder households. Farming is likely to become increasingly digital. Weather services will increasingly be delivered through digital channels.

Market connections may move further online. Mobile payments will continue to influence agricultural transactions, while artificial intelligence and data systems are likely to become more common in agricultural advice.

But the real test will not be how advanced the technology looks. It will be whether a farmer knows when to plant because reliable information arrived on time; whether a producer finds a better market without losing much of the harvest through poor coordination; and whether a crop disease is identified early enough to prevent serious losses.

For Tanzania’s smallholders, the digital revolution will become meaningful only when technology is affordable, understandable, accessible and relevant to everyday farming. The phone may be in the farmer’s hand, but the real transformation will depend on what that phone enables the farmer to do.

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