CHINSINSI, VERONICA DAKALIRA2026-06-232026-06-232025-09http://41.89.96.81:4000/handle/123456789/3842Smallholder Irish potato farmers face numerous challenges which include low productivity and lack of access to ready and reliable markets among others. This is an attribute of their limited access to production and marketing information. Recognizing this problem, the public and private sectors developed digital platforms specific for potato namely, Viazisoko and Mzizi app to help farmers with these problems. While the majority of prior research has looked at the factors influencing the adoption and efforts to expand the adoption of digital platforms, there remains a gap on understanding the effectiveness of these digital platforms on productivity and marketing among smallholder potato farmers. Therefore, the purpose of this research study was to evaluate the effects of using digital information platforms on potato production and marketing among smallholder farmers in Molo and Njoro Sub-counties, Kenya. The study's general objective was to contribute to improved productivity and marketing of potatoes for enhanced food and income security among smallholder farmers through the use of digital platforms. Specifically, the study attempted to determine the factors that influence access and use of digital platforms, to determine the effects of using digital platforms on productivity, and to evaluate the effects of using digital platforms on sales volume among smallholder potato farmers in Molo and Njoro. The cross-sectional research design was adopted and the multistage sampling technique was used to select 402 potato smallholder farmers. Data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The results from Heckprobit revealed that factors that significantly influenced farmers’ access to digital platforms were sex (p<0.01), education (p<0.01), phone ownership (p<0.01) and farming experience (P<0.05); whereas potato land size (p<0.01), access to credit (p<0.05), trainings (p<0.01), and need for potato production information (p<0.01) significantly influenced farmers to use the digital platforms. The Multinomial Endogenous Treatment Effects model results revealed that the use of digital platforms is associated with high productivity gains (coef; 0.532, p<0.01), and higher sales volume (coef; 1.543, p<0.01) even after correcting for selection bias. Therefore, there is need for effective policies tailored towards enhancing the access and use of digital information platforms among potato smallholder farmers in order to increase productivity and sales volume.enThesis