Digital-Mediated Strategies for Climate Communication Among Smallholder Farmers in of Southern Africa

The effect of climate change has negatively impacted agricultural production and food security in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, particularly among smallholder farmers in Southern Africa. These challenges have been exacerbated the limitations in traditional agricultural communication systems and extension services. However, global innovations in digital technologies for communication provide opportunities for improving climate change information. This paper explores communication climate communication challenges among selected countries in the Southern African region and suggests how emerging digital technologies may be harnessed for climate communication among smallholder farmers. The review shows that while nations had embraced traditional digital technologies for communicating climate information, few innovations supported by emerging technologies have been developed to support climate communication among farmers. The review showed that farmers have continued to face several challenges in accessing and disseminating climate information. The review also shows that the few innovations that have been developed have remained at incubation level and a few of this innovation have been commercialized to support climate communication among smallholder farmers. The study therefore recommended further research on the integration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, block chain technology and data analytics in climate change communication. The study further recommends policy interventions on improving accessibility of these emerging technologies among smallholder farmers.