Background 

Public agricultural extension services have long been criticized for their ineffectiveness in providing customized agricultural information to farmers. One viable alternative to public extension services that have been recently identified is the use of digital advisory services (DAS). However, the literature on smallholder farmers’ perceptions of DAS remains relatively thin.

Research objective

This study evaluates smallholder farmers’ perceptions and their effects on the adoption of digital advisory services in Butaleja District,Uganda.

Methods 

The study employed a multistage sampling technique to select 1,920 households in Butaleja District. An ordinary least square (OLS) regression model and a multivariate probit (MVP)model were used to estimate the drivers of smallholder farmers’ perceptions and their effects on the adoption of DAS, respectively.

Results(or expected results) 

The OLS estimates reveal that age, group membership, awareness, digital literacy, extension, and distance to the market were the most important drivers of perceptions of DAS. Results from the MVP model show that education, group membership, awareness, digital literacy, extension, farm size, and perceptions of DAS significantly influenced the adoption of DAS. Overall, the findings indicate that information access variables such as awareness, knowledge, education, and extension were the key drivers for both farmers' perceptions and their adoption of DAS.

Conclusion

The study concludes that agricultural extension policy initiatives should focus on increasing targeted training on DAS attributes, and their benefits as a pathway to increase extension coverage in Uganda.