IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fpr/menawp/152510.html

Digital tools for smallholders in Egypt: The launch of a new price monitoring tool - Mahsoly

Author

Listed:
  • Abdelaziz, Fatma
  • Tarek, Abdallah

Abstract

The rapid adoption of mobile phones in agricultural and production systems provides an avenue to unlock the potential of digital innovations to transform smallholder agriculture in low- and middle-income countries. Previous research highlights how the adoption of digital tools can enhance farmers' profits and marketing outcomes by improving market efficiency through better supply and demand matching. Other research similarly emphasizes how digital innovations can facilitate agricultural transformation and transform the functioning of markets by addressing multiple forms of institutional and market failures. However, despite these advantages and the availability of numerous digital tools for agriculture, their adoption remains low and uneven across Africa, where agricultural markets are still underdeveloped. Smallholder farmers in developing countries, including Egypt, face challenges in accessing essential information, which limits their ability to leverage market opportunities and maximize profitability. Given the limited understanding of the primary challenges hindering Egyptian farmers' adoption of digital technologies and the strategies needed to enhance their access to these innovations, this paper aims to utilize an extensive survey of smallholder farmers in Egypt to: (i) examine the constraints to adoption of digital agricultural tools in Egypt; and (ii) assess the impact of farmer training programs on the awareness and adoption of digital tools, using the Mahsoly mobile application and its new price monitoring tool as a case study.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdelaziz, Fatma & Tarek, Abdallah, 2024. "Digital tools for smallholders in Egypt: The launch of a new price monitoring tool - Mahsoly," MENA working papers 44, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:menawp:152510
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152510
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jenny C. Aker & Ishita Ghosh & Jenna Burrell, 2016. "The promise (and pitfalls) of ICT for agriculture initiatives," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 47(S1), pages 35-48, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Junyan Tian, 2025. "Vulnerability to Adverse Climate Change: Evidence from Rural Bangladesh," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 37(4), pages 765-791, August.
    2. Yoko Kijima, 2022. "Effect of Nigeria’s e-voucher input subsidy program on fertilizer use, rice production, and household income," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(4), pages 919-935, August.
    3. Yegbemey, Rosaine N. & Bensch, Gunther & Vance, Colin, 2023. "Weather information and agricultural outcomes: Evidence from a pilot field experiment in Benin," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    4. Fang, Lan & Quan, Yurong & Mao, Hui & Chen, Shaojian, 2022. "The Information Communication Technology and Off-farm Employment of Rural Laborers: An Analysis Based on the Micro Data of China Family Panel Studies," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322088, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Ceballos, Francisco & Chugh, Aditi & Kramer, Berber, 2024. "Impacts of personalized picture-based crop advisories: Experimental evidence from India and Kenya," IFPRI discussion papers 2322, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Oparinde, Lawrence Olusola, 2023. "ICTs Use, Agroforestry Technologies’ Adoption and Crop Farmers’ Welfare: An Empirical Evidence from Southwest, Nigeria," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 15(4), December.
    7. Kleemann, Linda & Semrau, Finn Ole, 2025. "Connecting the unconnected? Social ties and ICT adoption among smallholder farmers in developing countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    8. Michelson, Hope & Fairbairn, Anna & Ellison, Brenna & Maertens, Annemie & Manyong, Victor, 2021. "Misperceived quality: Fertilizer in Tanzania," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    9. Ragasa, Catherine & Ma, Ning & Hami, Emmanuel, 2024. "Farmer groups as ICT Hubs: Findings from a cluster-randomized controlled trial in Malawi," IFPRI discussion papers 2261, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Michelson, Hope & Gourlay, Sydney & Lybbert, Travis & Wollburg, Philip, 2023. "Review: Purchased agricultural input quality and small farms," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    11. Awal Abdul‐Rahaman & Gazali Issahaku & Wanglin Ma, 2023. "Agrifood system participation and production efficiency among smallholder vegetable farmers in Northern Ghana," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 812-835, July.
    12. Arkajyoti De & Surya Prakash Singh, 2022. "Analysis of Competitiveness in Agri-Supply Chain Logistics Outsourcing: A B2B Contractual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-33, June.
    13. Siyu Gong & Bo Wang & Zhigang Yu, 2022. "Whether the Use of the Internet Can Assist Farmers in Selecting Biopesticides or Not: A Study Based on Evidence from the Largest Rice-Producing Province in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-17, December.
    14. Daum, Thomas & Villalba, Roberto & Anidi, Oluwakayode & Mayienga, Sharon Masakhwe & Gupta, Saurabh & Birner, Regina, 2021. "Uber for tractors? Opportunities and challenges of digital tools for tractor hire in India and Nigeria," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    15. Awal Abdul‐Rahaman & Awudu Abdulai, 2020. "Vertical coordination mechanisms and farm performance amongst smallholder rice farmers in northern Ghana," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 259-280, April.
    16. Wang, Jierong & Yang, Gang & Zhou, Chaojun, 2024. "Does internet use promote agricultural green development?Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 98-111.
    17. Boukaka, Sedi Anne & Geoffrey, Baragu & Azzarri, Carlo, 2025. "Digital tool integration, biodiversity, and the potato value chain in Kenya: Results from a baseline survey," SFS4Youth Working Paper 7, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    18. Gershom Endelani Mwalupaso & Xianhui Geng & Salman Ibn Yasin, 2025. "Financial inclusion for sustainable agriculture: Pathways among smallholder women farmers in rural Zambia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(7), pages 1-20, July.
    19. Eline D'Haene & Juan Tur Cardona & Stijn Speelman & Koen Schoors & Marijke D'Haese, 2021. "Unraveling preferences for religious ties in food transactions: A consumer perspective," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 52(4), pages 701-716, July.
    20. Xiyang Yin & Wanyi Li & Shuyu Tang & Yanjiao Li & Jianhua Zhao & Pengpeng Tian, 2025. "Pathways Through Which Digital Technology Use Facilitates Farmers’ Adoption of Green Agricultural Technologies: A Comprehensive Study Based on Grounded Theory and Empirical Testing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-23, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fpr:menawp:152510. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifprius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.