Research Insights

AgriPath is the first comparable long-term study in DAS across multiple countries in both Asia and Africa, involving thousands of farmers. The research design combines social and technical aspects, as well as different research and experimental  methods that measure behaviour, reveal psychological mechanisms, and consider social norms and networks that influence adoption of digital advisory services. 

Publications

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Gender perspectives on mobile phone ownership and use: a case study of smallholder farmers in Uganda

Authors: Mulungu, Kelvin

Year: 2025

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A young man and an older woman in a lush green coffee plantation, looking at a tablet together.

The role of information and communication technologies-based extension in agriculture: application, opportunities and challenges

Authors: K. Mulungu, M. Kassie & M. Tschopp.

Journal: Information Technology for Development

Year: 2025

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Green fields of farmland with a dirt path, some trees, and a large blue sky with a few scattered clouds.

Adoption of sustainable land and water management practices and their impact on crop productivity among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa

Authors: C. D. Mangole, C. M. Maina, K. Mulungu, M. Tschopp, N. Harari, R. Suresh, & M. Kassie

Journal: Land Use Policy

Year: 2025

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Challenges and Opportunities of Digital Agro-advisory Services for Smallholder Farmers

Authors: Rana, H., & Vaidya, B.

Journal: SINHAS Vol 29 No 2

Year: 2024

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Adoption of Digital Agro-Advisory Services Among Smallholder Farmers: Patterns of the Innovation-Decision Process

Authors: Vaidya, B., Rana, H., & Sharma, S. R.

Journal: Bodhi: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 9(1), 313–345

Year: 2023

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Cover of the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics with a digital green globe illustration and logos for SAE and Cambridge University Press.

The Direct and Indirect Effects of Mobile Phone Ownership on Maize Yields in Tanzania

Authors: Cool Dady Mangole, Kelvin Mulungu, Christian Kamala Kaghoma, Menale Kassie

Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Volume 57, Issue 3

Year 2025

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A young man with dark skin, smiling and holding a smartphone in his right hand, standing outdoors in front of green vegetation, with a pink bucket in his left hand.

Smallholder farmers' willingness to pay for the farmbetter mobile app-based agricultural extension: evidence from a BDM experiment in Tanzania and Burkina Faso

Authors: Cool Dady Mangole, Kelvin Mulungu, Christian Kamala Kaghom, Menale Kassie

Journal: International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 24(1).

Year 2026

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Papers Under Review

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Farmers’ Perceptions and Their Effect on the Adoption of Digital Advisory Services in Butaleja District, Uganda

Authors:

Charles Mbogo Maina *1,3, JonathanMakau Nzuma1, Cecilia Nyawira Ritho1, Kelvin Mulungu2 and Menale Kassie3

1Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nairobi, Kenya

2 InternationalMaize and Wheat Improvement Centre (cimmyt), Lusaka, Zambia

3 InternationalCentre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), Nairobi, Kenya

Contact: mkassie@icipe.org

ABSTRACT

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.

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