McNamara, Kerry2012-08-132012-08-132009-04https://hdl.handle.net/10986/9496Raising the productivity of smallholders is a necessary condition for increasing incomes and improving livelihoods among the rural poor in most developing countries. This increased productivity is essential to both household food security and to agriculture-based growth and poverty reduction in the larger economy. Smallholder productivity is limited by a variety of constraints including poor soils, unpredictable rainfall, and imperfect markets, as well as lack of access to productive resources, financial services, or infrastructure. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are also vitally important to commercial and large-scale agriculture, and to agriculture-related services and infrastructure such as weather monitoring and irrigation. This note focuses on the sometimes less-obvious importance of ICT in improving the information, communication, transaction, and networking elements of smallholder agriculture in developing countries.CC BY 3.0 IGOACCESS TO INFORMATIONAFFORDABLE ACCESSAGRICULTURAL INFORMATIONAGRICULTURAL INNOVATIONAGRICULTURAL RESEARCHAGRICULTUREBUSINESS MODELSBUSINESSESCELL PHONECELL PHONESCOLLECTIVE ACTIONCOMMODITIESCOMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURECOMMUNICATION NETWORKSCOMMUNICATION SERVICESCOMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIESCOMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGYCOMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURECOMPETITIVE MARKETSCONNECTIVITYDIGITAL DIVIDEECOLOGYECONOMICSEXTENSIONEXTENSION SERVICESFARMERSFINANCIAL INSTITUTIONSFINANCIAL SERVICESFISHFISHERIESGENDERGLOBAL MARKETSGOVERNMENT POLICIESGOVERNMENT SERVICESICTINCOMESINFORMATION ACCESSINFORMATION ECONOMYINFORMATION TECHNOLOGYINNOVATIONINNOVATION SYSTEMSINNOVATIONSINTERMEDIARY ORGANIZATIONSINTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONLIVELIHOODSMARKET INFORMATIONMARKET OPPORTUNITIESMARKET PRICESMARKETINGMIDDLEMENMOBILE PHONEMOBILE PHONESMOBILE SERVICESNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SYSTEMSNETWORKSNEW MARKETPHOTOPRICE INFORMATIONPRIVATE INVESTMENTPRIVATE SECTORPRODUCTION TECHNIQUESPRODUCTIVITYPUBLIC SERVICESRADIOREGULATORY FRAMEWORKSRELIABLE ACCESSRESULTRURAL ACCESSRURAL DEVELOPMENTSEARCHSERVICE DELIVERYSERVICE MODELSSERVICE PROVIDERSSOCIAL SERVICESSOFTWARE SOLUTIONSSOILSSUPPLY CHAINSTELECOMMUNICATIONTELECOMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENTTEXTTRANSACTIONTRANSACTION SERVICESTRANSACTION SYSTEMSVALUE CHAINWEBWorld Bank10.1596/9496