Linking Farmers to Food and Agricultural Markets: The Role of Mobile-Based ICT in Enhancing Agricultural Marketing and Rural Financial Service Delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa

Editorial PrEfacE The growing use of new generation, mobile-based, information and communication technologies (ICT) has expanded opportunities for food and agricultural marketing and rural financial service delivery among the smallholder farming community in Sub-Saharan Africa. Smallholder farmers in developing countries have struggled for many years under difficult conditions of poor access to input and product markets which has led to persistent low marketing margins. The exploitative tendencies of the middlemen have further worsened smallholder farmer's welfare and thus perpetuate rural household income and asset poverty for decades. With the advent of new mobile phones, smallholder farmers are able to access more lucrative long-distant markets, negotiate better trading terms for their products, and tap into financial markets which were traditionally reserved for the well-connected wealthy individuals or those with collateral assets. The mobile phone revolution sweeping across the African continent and the rest of the global world has empowered smallholder farmers in their decision making in numerous ways. For instance, mobile-based ICT has significantly improved the availability of marketing information, expanded marketing options, enhanced access to financial services, and raised agricultural knowledge as producers are in a better position to interact with other farmers, extension workers, researchers and government experts in real time. This special edition provides important and timely information on the adoption of mobile-based ICT by smallholder farmers in agricultural marketing and financial service delivery in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The papers in this special issue are drawn from four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa namely, Ghana, Uganda, Malawi and Kenya. The papers report on key findings from studies based on International Development Research Centre (IDRC) funded rural projects that have focused on understanding the key factors affecting the adoption of mobile phone use for agricultural marketing and financial service delivery by smallholder farmers in the respective African countries. These studies are seminal in providing context specific explanation of what drives mobile-based ICT adoption for agricul-i