STATUS AND PROSPECTS OF ICT AMONG NEPALESE SMALLHOLDER FARMERS

The majority of Nepalese smallholder farmers, who account for 70 % of the total food produced in the country, are still not utilizing ICT services for agricultural information. The use of ICT can provide timely information about the market, production technologies, and important recommendations that help smallholders to uplift their livelihood strategies. This review paper aims to assess the status of ICT use among Nepalese smallholder farmers and identify its prospects. For this purpose, a thorough review is done by studying various secondary sources. From the review, the increasing access to mobile phones and internet services among farmers indicates that there lie possibilities of connecting smallholders to the information ecosystem through ICT. However, various factors such as education, cost of technology, socio-economic condition, etc. of farmers influence the decision regarding adoption and non-adoption of ICT, which should be considered before forming plans and policies to increase its use. Various subsidies and incentives in ICT facilities can be an excellent idea to increase the adoption.