A mobile phone application for agricultural extension in marginalised rural areas of Pongola region, Zululand district, South Africa (original) (raw)
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Scholarly publication , 2021
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RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2012
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International Journal of Scientific Research, 2012
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Inexpensive mobile technologies to empower rural farmers with m-agriculture
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Market information and established communication between seller and buyer play an important role in business activities. This thesis investigates the Transkei area in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa to find out how to empower rural farmers by providing them with less-expensive mobile technology enabling them to post and advertise their produce, access market information on a common database, and find and communicate with potential customers. The farmers' requirements were identified using quantitative and qualitative methods and a prototype consisting of USSD and web applications was developed. It allows the farmer to follow a sequence of menu commands to send a request to the database and access market information, such as commodity prices, and post information about their own produce so as to attract more customers. The low cost of USSD and the ubiquity of mobile phones enable the system to be usable, affordable and effective. During the final stage of development, the system was tested successfully and addressed a major problem faced by farmers, i.e. lack of access to market information. Table of Contents ix List of Tables xii List of Figures xiii Glossary xv Chapter 1 1 Problem statement and analysis 1 Introduction 1 Sketching the background 1 Related literature 2 Approach and methodology 6 Conclusion 7 Chapter 2 9 Literature review 9 Introduction 9 Clarification of basic terms and concepts 9 Overview of ICTs in rural areas Background Importance of ICTs in rural areas Challenges of ICT implementation in rural areas The mobile phone and the Internet as ICT tools for development The mobile phone as a tool for development The Internet as a tool for development ICT usage for rural farmers Some successful projects How to ensure that ICTs will work for development Conclusion Chapter 3 23 Methodology and research design Introduction x Research problem Research approach Epistemology Theoretical perspective Methodology Methods Research design 1. Clarify the research question: 2. Determine if a mixed design 3. Select mixed-method 4. Collect the data: 5. Analyse the data 6. Interpret the data 7. Validate the data 8. Draw conclusion Conclusion Chapter 4 39 Results Introduction User requirement identification (Step A) Detailed description of the preliminary investigation Investigation conducted with farmers Prototype design (Step B) Database design Web application Mobile phone application System testing (Step c) First cycle results Action to improve the system to better address the problem (Step D) Second-cycle result Conclusion Chapter 5 83 xvi INTERNET The world's largest computer network, consisting of thousands of interconnected networks all freely exchanging information (Stain et al., 2008). JAVASCRIPT A scripting language used to enable access to objects within other applications. It is primarily used for the development of dynamic websites (Science Articles, 2011). J2ME Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition: A platform that uses the Java programming language and related tools to design mobile phone applications. MARKET A place where sellers and buyers meet. MOBILE PHONE A portable electronic device used to communicate. Mobile phones use a network of specialised base stations (Jerry, 2010). Also called a cell phone.