Agricultural Education and Extension Collection

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://10.10.97.169:4000/handle/123456789/28

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Browsing Agricultural Education and Extension Collection by Subject "Agricultural information"

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    Factors Influencing the use of mobile phones in communicating agricultural Information: A case of Kilolo District, Iringa, Tanzania
    (International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Research, 2012-07) Nyamba, S. Y.; Mlozi, M. R. S.
    This study sought to investigate factors influencing the use of mobile phones in communicating agricultural information in Rural Tanzania. Generally, it aimed at addressing the following questions: (1) in what ways do farmers make use of mobile phone technologies to meet their agricultural information needs? (2) How the uses of the mobile phones enable farmers to confront the challenges they face in their farming business? (3) What are the farmers’ attitudes toward the use of mobile phone technology? Specifically, the study had three objectives: (1) to determine the extent of ownership of mobile phones by farmers in the study area. (2) to assess the type of agricultural information that farmers send and or receive using mobile phones and (3) to identify socio-economic factors influencing the use of mobile phones in the communication of agricultural information in the study area. A cross-sectional research design and simple random sampling technique were adopted, 384 respondents and 16 key informants were contacted for interview and Focus Group Discussion, respectively. Data collected were summarize, coded before being analyzed using a Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The study found that, asymmetry information generates uncertainties in farming business which eventually limit the economic potential of farmers as market participants. Basically, the study results, can be interpreted that, mobile phone technology acceptance to rural Tanzania was high enough for one to accompany it with a predictable positive economic impact. In terms of access to agricultural information through mobile phones, it was evident that, people in the study area capture the advantages of increased number of mobile phone to access information related to their farming business. Most of respondents valued mobile phones as easy, fast and convenient way of communicating agricultural information. Factors that influenced mobile phone use in communicating agricultural information included mole phone ownership, type of agricultural information to be communicated, farming system practiced, network coverage, and respondents’ socio-economic characteristics. On the other hand, lack of electricity, poverty and lack of knowledge limited respondents’ mobile phone ownership and use.
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    The use of mobile phones in communicating agricultural information in Tanzania: the roles of different stakeholders
    (Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2017) Nyamba, S. Y.
    The study on which this thesis is based sought to investigate roles of different stakeholders influencing the use of mobile phones in communicating agricultural information in Tanzania. The study arose from the fact that, while information is becoming an important ingredient in agriculture, farmers in Tanzania lack access to agricultural information something which greatly constrains efforts to improve agricultural development. One good thing is that, mobile phone technology which is ubiquitously being subscribed to in Tanzania is believed to have the potential to address information irregularities in various business setups including in agriculture. Therefore, the study aimed to assess roles that different stakeholders could play in order to facilitate the use of mobile phones in communicating agricultural information. Specifically, the study aimed to: understand whether or not farmers’ socio-economic characteristics influence the use of mobile phones in communicating agricultural information, examine types of agricultural information that farmers require including their sources, determine roles of different stakeholders influencing the use of mobile phones to communicate agricultural information, assess existing mobile phone based interactions among stakeholders relating to communication of agricultural information, and determine institutional factors underlying actions of different stakeholders on use of mobile phones to communicate agricultural information. The study was conducted in Kilolo and Kilosa Districts in Tanzania. A cross-sectional research design was adapted; data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire, a guide for focus group discussions and a check list for key informant interviews. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. Regression analysis results indicated that socio-demographic characteristics significantly influenced the use of mobile phone to communicate agricultural information at 0.059, 0.012, 0.038, 0.265 and 0.043 coefficients for age, literacy levels, farm sizes, distance from market and type of agricultural information needed, respectively. Similarly, the results indicated that support from other stakeholders and interactions among stakeholders affected the dependent variable at t = 1.362, ρ = 0.009 and t=1.362, ρ = 0.012, respectively. Consequently, it is recommended that planners should consider aspects like farmers’ socio-economic characteristics, nature of information, interaction among stakeholders and type of support needed in order to perfectly address the use of mobile phones in communicating agricultural information.