Information and Communication Technologies and Agricultural Production: New Evidence from Africa
While information and communication technologies (ICT) have proven to be useful in boosting agricultural production and productivity, regardless of the geographical location, much of the discussion on ICT and their impact focus on the global north, with deficient literature on the global south. The...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/6/3918 |
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| author | Robert Ugochukwu Onyeneke Daniel Adu Ankrah Richmond Atta-Ankomah Fred Fosu Agyarko Chinenye Judith Onyeneke Jalil Ghassemi Nejad |
| author_facet | Robert Ugochukwu Onyeneke Daniel Adu Ankrah Richmond Atta-Ankomah Fred Fosu Agyarko Chinenye Judith Onyeneke Jalil Ghassemi Nejad |
| author_sort | Robert Ugochukwu Onyeneke |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | While information and communication technologies (ICT) have proven to be useful in boosting agricultural production and productivity, regardless of the geographical location, much of the discussion on ICT and their impact focus on the global north, with deficient literature on the global south. The limited account of the global south shows mixed conclusions on the impact of information and communication technologies on agricultural production, with most studies focusing on crop production, as a proxy for agricultural production, leaving out livestock production. Animated by this concern, this article explores the impact of ICTs on agricultural production (crop and livestock) in Africa using panel data from 32 African countries and the panel autoregressive distributed lag model as the estimation technique. We find that individuals using internet significantly increased crop production in the long run. Specifically, a percentage increase in internet patronage increases crop production by 0.071% but significantly decreases the livestock production index, both in the short and long run. Mobile phone subscriptions had a significant negative impact on crop production in the long run but had a significant positive impact on livestock production in the long run. Fixed phone subscriptions significantly increased crop production in the long run but significantly decreased livestock production index in the long run. The findings show bidirectional causality between crop production and internet patronage, livestock production and individuals using internet, crop production and mobile cellular subscription, crop production and net national income, and rural population and both crop and livestock production. We recommend that governments in Africa increase funding investment in digital technologies to foster increased agricultural production while addressing structural challenges that constrain increased access to digital agricultural technologies. It might be useful if governments in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) incentivize the telecommunication companies to extend digital coverage to rural areas through tax rebates and holidays to encourage rural inclusion in the digital space to bridge the digital divide. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:57:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-96b433bb43aa46adb9913ce3e01b3c21 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:57:48Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-96b433bb43aa46adb9913ce3e01b3c212023-11-17T09:28:49ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172023-03-01136391810.3390/app13063918Information and Communication Technologies and Agricultural Production: New Evidence from AfricaRobert Ugochukwu Onyeneke0Daniel Adu Ankrah1Richmond Atta-Ankomah2Fred Fosu Agyarko3Chinenye Judith Onyeneke4Jalil Ghassemi Nejad5Department of Agriculture, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo 482131, NigeriaDepartment of Agricultural Extension, University of Ghana, Accra P.O. Box LG 68, GhanaInstitute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER), College of Humanities, University of Ghana, Accra P.O. Box LG 74, GhanaInstitute for Scientific and Technological Information (INSTI), Accra P.O. Box M 32, GhanaCentre for Entrepreneurship and Employability, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo 482131, NigeriaDepartment of Animal Science and Technology, Sanghuh College of Animal Life Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of KoreaWhile information and communication technologies (ICT) have proven to be useful in boosting agricultural production and productivity, regardless of the geographical location, much of the discussion on ICT and their impact focus on the global north, with deficient literature on the global south. The limited account of the global south shows mixed conclusions on the impact of information and communication technologies on agricultural production, with most studies focusing on crop production, as a proxy for agricultural production, leaving out livestock production. Animated by this concern, this article explores the impact of ICTs on agricultural production (crop and livestock) in Africa using panel data from 32 African countries and the panel autoregressive distributed lag model as the estimation technique. We find that individuals using internet significantly increased crop production in the long run. Specifically, a percentage increase in internet patronage increases crop production by 0.071% but significantly decreases the livestock production index, both in the short and long run. Mobile phone subscriptions had a significant negative impact on crop production in the long run but had a significant positive impact on livestock production in the long run. Fixed phone subscriptions significantly increased crop production in the long run but significantly decreased livestock production index in the long run. The findings show bidirectional causality between crop production and internet patronage, livestock production and individuals using internet, crop production and mobile cellular subscription, crop production and net national income, and rural population and both crop and livestock production. We recommend that governments in Africa increase funding investment in digital technologies to foster increased agricultural production while addressing structural challenges that constrain increased access to digital agricultural technologies. It might be useful if governments in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) incentivize the telecommunication companies to extend digital coverage to rural areas through tax rebates and holidays to encourage rural inclusion in the digital space to bridge the digital divide.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/6/3918individuals using the internetmobile phone subscriptionsfixed telephone subscriptionsnet national income per capitacredit to the private sectorrural population |
| spellingShingle | Robert Ugochukwu Onyeneke Daniel Adu Ankrah Richmond Atta-Ankomah Fred Fosu Agyarko Chinenye Judith Onyeneke Jalil Ghassemi Nejad Information and Communication Technologies and Agricultural Production: New Evidence from Africa Applied Sciences individuals using the internet mobile phone subscriptions fixed telephone subscriptions net national income per capita credit to the private sector rural population |
| title | Information and Communication Technologies and Agricultural Production: New Evidence from Africa |
| title_full | Information and Communication Technologies and Agricultural Production: New Evidence from Africa |
| title_fullStr | Information and Communication Technologies and Agricultural Production: New Evidence from Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Information and Communication Technologies and Agricultural Production: New Evidence from Africa |
| title_short | Information and Communication Technologies and Agricultural Production: New Evidence from Africa |
| title_sort | information and communication technologies and agricultural production new evidence from africa |
| topic | individuals using the internet mobile phone subscriptions fixed telephone subscriptions net national income per capita credit to the private sector rural population |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/6/3918 |
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