Background Digital agriculture can boost Sub-Saharan African smallholder farmers’ production, market integration, and climate resilience. In unstable and conflict-affected situations, structural inequities, weak institutional capability, and low digital literacy make technology adoption uneven. In Puntland, Somalia, little is known about the factors that affect ICT4Ag adoption. This study examined the multiple barriers to digital agriculture adoption by smallholder farmers in Bosaso, Garowe, and Carmo districts. Methods Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was undertaken on 110 Somali smallholder farmers from three Puntland State districts. Primary data were acquired using KoboToolbox structured digital questionnaires. Demographics, education, device ownership, internet connection, ICT4Ag awareness and use, and perceived adoption barriers were measured. WE used STATA 17, R 4.3.2, and Python 3.11 for descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Chi-square tests, and binary logistic regression. Digital inequality was examined using Somalia National Bureau of Statistics secondary contextual indicators. Results Puntland’s digital agriculture ecosystem has a large awareness-usage imbalance. Mobile money awareness reached 82.7%, but ICT4Ag application use was only 5.1%. Smartphones were found to significantly impact educational success (χ 2 = 31.84, p
Jama et al. (Wed,) studied this question.