Effect of Digital Agriculture Technologies on Profitability and Efficiency of Agricultural Enterprises in Delta State

The study was conducted to determine the effect of digital agriculture technologies on profitability and efficiency of agricultural enterprises in Delta state, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to identify the digital agriculture technologies that farmers are aware of, assess the current level of adoption of digital agriculture technologies, analyze the effect of digital agriculture technologies on farm profitability, evaluate the effect of digital agriculture technologies on farm efficiency and identify the challenges to the adoption of digital agriculture technologies in Delta state The respondents were selected using multistage and multiple sampling techniques on farmers from the three agricultural zones in Delta state (Delta North, Delta Central and Delta South). A total of 120 respondents were selected using purposive and random sampling. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square analysis, Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression analysis. The study revealed a population with a mean age of 38.94 ± 11.51 years, most respondents were male (56.7%) and married (64.2%). Majority (76.7%) had tertiary education and average farming experience 10.63 ± 10.86 years. All the respondents adopted digital agriculture technologies with varying degree of use (daily, weekly, monthly). The most commonly used technologies are mobile phones for calls and SMS, social media for advertising and sales and digital payment systems. Further, advanced technology like precision farming and artificial intelligence had very low adoption rates. The benefits of DATs are most notably improved access to information ( =2.64), improved market access ( =2.55) and easier financial transactions ( =2.36) respectively. Significant challenges such as high cost of technology ( =1.91) and lack of reliable internet connectivity ( =1.64) hindered adoption. The chi-square analysis revealed a significant association between mixed farming (χ²=5.87; p=0.02) and farm profitability, and animal farming (χ²=7.41; p=0.01) and farm efficiency. Pearson correlation further showed a positive correlation between benefits of DATs and both profitability (r=0.25, p=0.01) and efficiency (r=0.50, p=0.01). The regression analysis highlighted that farm size positively impacted profitability (β=0.562, p=0.008) while awareness and benefits derived significantly enhanced farm efficiency (β=0.425, p=0.029), (β=0.266, p=0.032). Pearson correlation revealed a positive correlation between adoption and utilization of DATs and farm profitability. It is recommended that there should be intervention to reduce the costs of digital technologies, implement training programs to improve farmers’ knowledge and skills in utilizing digital technologies, invest in improving infrastructure particularly in rural areas and develop targeted support programs for different categories of farmers.