ICT Transaction Costs

Report

An academic paper by Harsha de Silva and Dimuthu Ratnadiwakara of LIRNEasia examining how ICT can reduce transaction costs in agriculture through better communication, based on a case study of smallholder vegetable farmers in Sri Lanka. Funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre, the paper isolates information-search costs along the agricultural value chain — from planting decisions to wholesale sale — as the component ICT is best placed to reduce, arguing this could help shift farmers from subsistence toward more commercially viable agriculture.