Mobile phone use by small-scale farmers: a potential to transform production and marketing in Zimbabwe (original) (raw)
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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.
Mobile Phone Use by Zimbabwean Smallholder Farmers: A Baseline Study
This article provides findings from a baseline study on mobile phone use by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. The study investigated use of mobile phones by 58 farming households in a village in Zimbabwe's Midlands Province. Via a survey questionnaire and a focus group discussion, the study found that 100% of the surveyed households identified "asymmetry of information" as a challenge they face in their agricultural activities, and 90% cited "absence of market information" as a challenge. Yet at the same time, the study found low levels of household mobile phone usage, with only 50% of households were found to be using mobile telephony in support of a farming activity. The article concludes with a recommendation for how to close this apparent gap between the smallholder farmers' felt need for increased agricultural information and, at the same time, their lack of use of mobile telephony to access such information.
African Journal of Information and Communication, 2018
This article provides findings from a baseline study on mobile phone use by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. The study investigated use of mobile phones by 58 farming households in a village in Zimbabwe's Midlands Province. Via a survey questionnaire and a focus group discussion, the study found that 100% of the surveyed households identified "asymmetry of information" as a challenge they face in their agricultural activities, and 90% cited "absence of market information" as a challenge. Yet at the same time, the study found low levels of household mobile phone usage, with only 50% of households were found to be using mobile telephony in support of a farming activity. The article concludes with a recommendation for how to close this apparent gap between the smallholder farmers' felt need for increased agricultural information and, at the same time, their lack of use of mobile telephony to access such information.
The mobile phone technology is an important tool to enhance farmers' access to better paying agricultural markets. The study reports the results of a household study in Mwanza, Dedza and Mzimba Districts of Malawi. The study assesses drivers of adoption of mobile phone technology for agricultural marketing by smallholder farmers. The study used regression techniques to identify drivers and extent of mobile phone use. Results show that use is positively affected by literacy, distance to local market, land size, current value of assets, crop income, and region variations but negatively influenced by access to electricity. Intensity of use is conditioned by gender, participation in agricultural projects, ownership of a mobile phone, current asset value, distance to nearest public phone services, and region variations. Asset endowment plays a critical role in enhancing adoption of mobile phone technology. Gender disparities significantly affect adoption as most women have limited access to assets. The study suggests the need to improve farmers' access to mobile phones for agricultural marketing. It recommends that government, in collaboration with mobile network operators, should reduce calling tariffs to enhance use, gender disparities in accessing assets should be minimised, and investment in supporting infrastructure must be enhanced.
Farmers' Use of Mobile Devices in Developing Countries
IST AFRICA, 2021
The introduction of mobile phone technology seems to have brought many benefits to many farmers, especially in developing countries, as it provides access relevant and reliable agricultural information to make more effective farming decisions. Many rural farmers face information asymmetry problems, which seem to emanate from pitfalls in the agriculture or farming extension services that could be solved through the use of mobile devices and technologies. To explore how farmers use mobile devices to access information to aid them in their agricultural practices, this study explored farmers use of mobile devices in the rural arears in Namibia, specifically, the Uukwiyu Uushona community in the Oshana Region for farming purposes. Applying a quantitative research method, data was collected from 140 participants using questionnaire. Thematic analyses to unearth trends were undertaken. The results show that farmers' use of mobile devices adds value and economic benefits to their practices. The study further found that farmers use mobile devices to get up to date information on input and output market transactions, weather information, and banking services. Based on the findings that some of the information on mobile phones are complex and hence difficult to comprehend, it is recommended that mobile agricultural information service providers team up with information systems experts to develop mobile applications or USSD applications that provide agriculture information in its simplest and comprehensive form so as for most farmers if not all, with all kinds of mobile devices will to be able to access agriculture information. Having some of the mobile agricultural information in native or local languages will be helpful especially for the illiterate group of farmers. Considering that only scanty literature similar studies especially in rural Namibia exist, this study contributed to the body of knowledge of mobile device use by farmers in rural areas.
Use of Mobile Phone Technology in Agricultural Marketing
International Journal of ICT Research and Development in Africa, 2011
The mobile phone technology is an important tool to enhance farmers’ access to better paying agricultural markets. The study reports the results of a household study in Mwanza, Dedza and Mzimba Districts of Malawi. The study assesses drivers of adoption of mobile phone technology for agricultural marketing by smallholder farmers. The study used regression techniques to identify drivers and extent of mobile phone use. Results show that use is positively affected by literacy, distance to local market, land size, current value of assets, crop income, and region variations but negatively influenced by access to electricity. Intensity of use is conditioned by gender, participation in agricultural projects, ownership of a mobile phone, current asset value, distance to nearest public phone services, and region variations. Asset endowment plays a critical role in enhancing adoption of mobile phone technology. Gender disparities significantly affect adoption as most women have limited access...
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.
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...
Smallholder Farmers and Mobile Phone Technology in Sub-Sahara Agriculture
One of the major constraints in Sub-Sahara agriculture is inefficiency and; improving it in agricultural value chain is important to increasing productivity and reducing poverty. One of the ways to improve the efficiency in the agriculture supply chain is the adoption and use of mobile phone. Mobile phone ownership and usage for social and agricultural purposes have received attention with an indication that it is growing in Sub-Sahara Africa. It provides different avenues for the transfer of knowledge and information among stakeholders of Agribusiness. This study investigates how much farmers have applied this technology and the benefits derived from it. Considering these objectives, a quantitative data derived through multi-stage sampling procedure was collected through a process of questionnaire administration that yielded 328 smallholder farmer respondents. The data was analysed using Stata 12 software. The results indicate that more young farmers use mobile phones and more than 82% of the farmers possess at least secondary school certificate. The farmers spend more (mobile phone bill) seeking market information than any other agricultural activities and obtaining weather information was one area in which they have not received reasonable benefits. One country information limits generalisation of the study and caution should be taken when using the data.
Journal of The Knowledge Economy, 2023
The rapid growth of information systems in the form of mobile phone applications in developing countries resulted in several benefits compared to other choices in relation to costs, environmental exposure, and simplicity of usage. However, smallholder farmers fail to meet the soaring demand for food and other agro commodities in time, and dodging market overflows is an extreme encounter among communal farmers due to a deficiency of information and unacquainted administration. Therefore, the study analyzes the factors influencing the use of information systems for enhancing smallholder production in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study applied a descriptive survey research design. A multi-stage simple random technique was used to collect data from 220 emerging growers using a semistructured survey. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a logistic regression model. The study indicated that most smallholder growers in the mentioned study area use information systems (IS) for their agricultural activities and agribusinesses and have further changed the farming landscape. Interestingly, agricultural productivity has been enhanced, as well as improved the food security status among rural households. Smallholder farmers have experienced problems in using information systems on their farms. Empirical results reveal that socioeconomic factors influence the use of mass media for agricultural purposes by smallholder farmers. Therefore, the study recommends the government should embark on educational awareness and training of farmers in using information systems to enhance productivity.