Motives Shaping Smallholder Farmers’ Use of Digital Agricultural Technologies: A Schutzian Lifeworld Perspective

Despite increasing investment in digital agricultural technologies, their use among smallholder farmers remains uneven. In many cases, these technologies are available but not consistently used. Much of the current research explains this pattern through adoption-focused approaches that emphasise structural and cognitive factors. These approaches are useful, and they focus on access, skills, and perceived usefulness. However, they do not fully address how farmers make sense of digital agricultural technologies in their everyday lives. In particular, they do not address the meanings and motives that shape how farmers engage with technologies in everyday life. This study addresses this gap by exploring the motives underlying the use of digital agricultural technologies by smallholder farmers in Zambia. In doing so, it shifts attention from external factors to farmers’ own reasons for action. The study employs a hermeneutic phenomenological approach and draws on Schutz’s concept of the lifeworld. It distinguishes between in-order-to motives, which are future-oriented, and because motives, which are grounded in past experience. The findings reveal that economic aspirations, social influences, lived experiences, and everyday livelihood concerns shape farmers’ engagement with digital agricultural technologies. For instance, an in-order-to motive was reflected in farmers’ use of digital platforms to anticipate weather conditions in order to plan planting and reduce risk. A corresponding ‘because’ motive emerged from prior experiences of crop loss due to unpredictable rainfall, which shaped their reliance on timely digital forecasts. These motives do not act separately but interact in shaping how farmers engage with the technologies. The use of digital agricultural technologies is more than responding to external factors. It develops into a meaningful activity, shaped by how farmers understand and navigate their everyday lives. This research adds to the existing studies on digital agriculture by shifting the focus from what drives adoption to the underlying reasons that influence how farmers act. In doing so, it offers a richer understanding of the use of technologies in smallholder farming contexts. In addition, the study offers practical insight into how digital agriculture interventions can be better aligned with smallholder farmers’ everyday realities and motives. This is important for designing interventions that are relevant in practice.