Farmers' Use of Mobile Devices in Developing Countries (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
Chisama, Benjamin, F., Purdue University, August 2016. Farmers' Use of Mobile Phone Technology for Agricultural Information Services in Lilongwe District, Malawi. Major Professors: Roger Tormoehlen and Neil Knobloch. Mobile phone technology can be a useful tool to provide farmers with relevant and reliable agricultural information for critical farming decisions in developing countries such as Malawi. An increasing number of rural farmers have been faced with information asymmetry challenges due to some pitfalls in the extension systems. In addition, knowledge gaps on farmers’ use of mobile phone technology; their awareness and use of MAIS; and their preferred topics to be delivered using mobile platforms were identified. However, little was known on how farmers were using existing MAIS. This study’s aim was to explore the potential of providing mobile agricultural information services to farmers in Malawi’s Lilongwe District. The mixed research mode was used to capture informati...
Scholarly publication , 2021
Mobile devices have become the primary connection tools for most people in the world and they can provide the ability to get connected to new knowledge and information sources in real-time. Zimbabwe, like many other developing countries, is adopting the use of mobile phones in many sectors including the agricultural sector. This study investigated the emerging potential of mobile phones and digital applications in disseminating relevant information and providing affordable services to the rural people involved in farming activities. The overall objective of this study was to determine the potential of mobile phone usage in agriculture. The specific objectives addressed were to: first, characterize the kinds of agricultural information and services valued by the smallholder farmers in the present-day farming activities. Second, to determine the factors that influence the use of mobile phones in communicating agricultural information. Third, to measure the magnitude of change on the use of other alternative forms of communication in agriculture ever since the farmers adopted mobile phones. The fourth objective was to characterize the benefits of using mobile phones in communicating agricultural information. A sample of 120 smallholder farmers from Mazoe District of Mashonaland province was used in the study. This study revealed that farmers are constantly searching for different kinds of information in order to make better decisions in their farm business management activities. About 95% of the study sample indicated the importance of having knowledge about upcoming events like weather forecasts and warnings about pests and diseases since most of them are largely dependent on natural environmental patterns. Evidence from the regression model revealed that age, gender; mobile phone ownership, period of ownership, and digital literacy level influence the levels of usage of mobile phones in communicating agricultural information. The introduction of mobile phones has significantly changed the agricultural development landscape with major disruptions being noted in the extension services and use of letters and posts. About 93.8% of the respondents indicated that there is a large decrease in the use of letters and post offices as a channel for communicating agricultural information. Mobile phones allow farmers to use various interaction mechanisms, such as text messaging or interactive voice response which is more efficient and effective when compared with letters and posts. The study concluded that mobile phones are becoming more and more important in making useful information widely available. An increasing number of people in Zimbabwe nowadays have access to mobile services such as Voice Calls, Short Message Services, and Agricultural Value-Added Services such as Mobile agriculture platforms and Mobile-money or mobile banking services. The study also concluded that farmers are using these mobile services to conduct business and to interact with other stakeholders in the various agricultural value chains. It is therefore recommended that the government and the private sector players in the agribusiness sector should consider the information needs of farmers and should develop mobile-based agricultural information dissemination systems and platforms to enhance efficiency in value chains.
International Journal of humanities and social sciences, 2024
One of the challenges facing small-scale farmers is the dearth of timely and high-quality agricultural information. The aim of the study was to investigate the use of mobile communication technologies in the access, use, and exchange of agricultural information among small-scale farmers in Nyandarua County and to explore how mobile technologies can be integrated into the county's agricultural information systems to help farmers access timely information. The study used a descriptive survey design. Data was collected from 353 farmers and seven agricultural extension officers through questionnaires and structured interviews. The findings revealed that the that the majority of farmers owned mobile devices, which they utilized to get a variety of agricultural information through voice messages, emails, SMS, and mobile apps. The optimal utilization of mobile communication devices by farmers is, however, hampered by poor internet connectivity, costly mobile phones and data bundles, a lack of awareness and training, insufficient access to electricity, and a lack of support from local and national governments. The study concludes that the increase in usage of mobile communication devices among farmers provides many opportunities for agricultural information access, use, and exchange if it were not for the infrastructural challenges. In order to enhance the integration of mobile services with agricultural systems and provide farmers with agricultural information, the study recommends setting up county agricultural data centers. To effectively address infrastructural issues, the county government should work more closely with various stakeholders.
IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2019
The pervasive use of smartphones to acquire diverse information among small-scale farmers has received little attention in studies. This study, therefore, explored the experience of Chamwino's small-scale farmers of the usage of smartphone to address ownership pattern, farming practices, information needs, encountered challenges and training needs for future technological alterations. The study employed qualitative design for data collection and thematic analysis was used. The findings revealed that the longer the distance from Dodoma city centre, the fewer the number of smartphones owners. That, less than half of farmers in Mvumi and Makangwa owned smartphones while, less than a quarter in Itiso, Mpwayungu, and Chilonwa Divisions. That youths owned more smartphones than elders, and mostly secondhand that were inadequately used for farming business. This was because, there was no special farming enabled information system to disseminate agricultural information. Accordingly, the frequently used features were SMS and voice calls. Consequently, farmers need information on inputs, weather, market and finance among others. Alternatively, there was no official training on the use of the device thus the new technology was therefore underutilized. Furthermore, challenges identified were farmers' lack of expertise of utilizing the device, uncomfortable large size and the interface of smartphones. Accordingly, farmers were interested in capacity building as many features were not used adequately. Consequently, the study provides deep understanding of farmers' experience and recommends for technological alteration to increase usability of the device.
The Use of Mobile Phone Among Farmers for Agriculture Development
International Journal of Scientific Research, 2012
Mobile phone usage in third world countries is playing a vital role for the enhancement of farmers business towards agriculture. Recently, communication through mobile phones is considered very important in enhancing farmers' access to better understand agricultural market situation. Farming communities appreciate mobile phone as easy, fast and convenient way to communicate and get prompt answers of respective problems. Nowadays, the mobile phone has generated an opportunity for the farmers especially to get the information about marketing and weather. Through this important technology, they directly keep in touch with market personals and offer their produce with reasonable prices. The use of mobile phone also keep them aware for weather forecast for agriculture input application like fertilizer and pesticides which might be affected by un fore seen disasters as communicated by metrological department. This device has given new direction and approach to farmers to communicate directly and share about recent advances with each other. The studies showed that mobile phones have saved energy and time of farmers and ultimately improved their income. Mobile phones have provided an opportunity to the farmers to communicate directly with market brokers and customers for sell their product in good price.
Use and Role of Mobile Phone for Information Services in Agricultural Activities
Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics & Sociology
The main purpose of this study was to determine the use and role of mobile phone for information services in agricultural activities as well as to explore the relationship between the socio-economic characteristics of women farmers and their use of mobile phone in agricultural activities. Data were collected using pre-tested interview schedule from a sample of 85 women farmers during the month of August 2018. Besides descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was used to explore the significant influencing factors. Ten (10) different android mobile phone apps were identified which are most frequently used by the women farmers in the study area. Among the mobile apps, ‘vutta or maize app’ was found as the top used mobile app for information services in agricultural activities. This might be because of rapidly spreading of maize cultivation as a highly benefited cereal crops against the climatic change situation in the study area. Findings indicated t...
2015
Telephone-based services are becoming widespread and could be useful in agriculture and rural development (ARD). This study assessed the use of mobile phone based services (MPBSs) among farmers in the northern zone of Edo State. A multistage sampling procedure was used to draw a sample of 150 respondents. Data on the objectives were obtained with structured questionnaire and analysed using frequency counts, percentages, mean, Likert scale and Spearman rho correlation. Results show that majority of respondents were males (72.7%), within the age group of between 51-60 years (53.3%), married (80.0%), had family size of 5-8 persons (62.0%) and had telephones (94.7%). The frequently accessed and regularly used MPBS were phone calls (x̅ =2.57; 3.39) and SMS (x̅ =2.28; 3.29).The ARD information frequently accessed using MPBSs included farmers' meetings (x̅ =2.26), planting/breeding materials (x̅ =2.17), community meetings (x̅ =2.56), warnings and alarms (x̅ =2.47) and community project...
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2018
The access to agricultural information in Sudan continues to be challenging to farmers due to use of inadequate sources and traditional extension approaches. The rapid growth of smartmobile phones usage in developing countries resulted in several advantages compared to other alternatives in term of costs, geographic coverage and ease of use. This research was conducted in North Kordofan Sate to explore the role of smart-mobile phone in accessing agricultural information. Primary data were obtained by structured questionnaires and focus group discussion through participatory rural appraisal and observation while secondary data were collected from scientific journals, books and authenticated web sources. A number of 230 respondents (10% from total farmers) were interviewed and five focus group discussions were done. Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) version 22 was used to analyze the data with aid of descriptive statistics and Chi-squire Test. The result indicated that most of the respondents fall in age group between 21-40 years, and they depend on farm activity. There was 90% of farmers processed mobile phone since more than three years ago, 90.8%continuedto use smart mobile phone to access agricultural information and showed positive contribution towards income generation. The results also revealed that there was positive perception towards using mobile phones which showed more efficient in use than radio and TVs. The results showed great advantages of using smart mobile phone where 75.2 % of respondents preferred to get agricultural information, logistics and other needs through successful communication in the mid of agricultural season. Results of Chi-squire test showed significant differences between the parameters tested. The study recommended that farmers should be connected with mobile phones to admit ease communication with agricultural extension offices and quick access to their needs and logistics.
South African Journal of Agricultural Extension (SAJAE)
Subsistence farming plays a pivotal role in the socioeconomic development and food security of rural populations. Strategic application of information and communication technology (ICT) to agriculture industry offers great opportunities for economic growth and poverty alleviation. The aim of this work is to implement a mobile solution that provides a platform to enable both extension officers to communicate information on agricultural extension and collaborate on farming and irrigation techniques. In addition, the mobile phone application would assist in sharing market related information for buying, selling of their produce, weather, and finance related services, as well as training and employment opportunities. Being better informed, the local farming community would be able to make decisions that would ultimately lead to an improvement in their socioeconomic conditions. Thus, a survey was conducted with 93 farmers selected by random sampling in the Pongola region of Zululand district to establish the penetration of mobile phones. It was found that 94.6% of the farmers owned mobile phones varying in capabilities from simple to smart phones. Based on the findings of the survey, mobile phone application using Java platform was developed and deployed to the cloud. The users expressed satisfaction with the features and the functionalities of the developed system.