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Paper short abstract

The Laiterie du Berger dairy uses digital tools to organize milk collection and payments among Senegalese pastoralists. A survey across 318 farms reveals intersecting digital divides (spatial, vertical, horizontal). Young, unmarried women with little livestock are most excluded.

Paper long abstract

In Senegal, pastoralism, a mobile, resource-dependent livestock system, is dominant, often practiced by family farms in landlocked areas. These farmers face constraints that exclude them from formal milk marketing channels. An important initiative countering this is Laiterie du Berger in Richard-Toll, northern Senegal. Dedicated to promoting local milk, the company has formalized the sector by organizing exchanges and using digital tools for managing milk collection, animal feed distribution, and producer payments. A quantitative survey conducted in November 2022 as part of the Fracture Numérique project investigated the impacts of this digitization. The survey included 318 pastoral concessions (1,272 individuals) across Laiterie du Berger's collection area and a neighboring non-collected zone. The results reveal multiple digital divides: (i) spatial: gaps between different geographical zones; (ii) vertical: differences based on individual resources (e.g., productive capital); and (iii) horizontal: inequalities relating to individual identity (e.g., gender, marital status). These forms of inequality often intersect, becoming mutually reinforcing. The study specifically highlights that young (unmarried) women with limited productive capital (livestock) and those living in remote, landlocked areas are the least likely to benefit from digital opportunities. This raises a crucial question: can digital innovations genuinely include and benefit these discriminated groups, or do they risk widening existing socio-economic gaps?