An assessment of access and use of information and communication technologies by rural households: case study of Mvomero district. Morogoro. Tanzania
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Date
2006
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
to assess the access and use of ICTs by rural
households. .Justifiably. ICTs are believed to have a significant role in promoting social
and economic development. Therefore there is a need to conduct research on ICTs in rural
areas in order to analyze the extent of access and use of ICTs by rural people. A cross
sectional survey was conducted in the study area to collect information on socio-economic
factors which determine the use of existing ICTs infrastructures particularly telephone
revealed that factors influencing use of telephone are household annual income, gender and
education level. The results further showed that factors influencing intensity of telephone
use as indicated by expenditure on telephone services are: number of household members,
employment. The ICTs such
services are more accessible to rural people than households’ phone and public telephone;
while computers and internet are rarely used in rural areas. The findings show that rural
people access agricultural information from television and radio. In limited occasions rural
people access and convey agricultural information by telephone. Cellular phones are used
as source of income by small entrepreneurs who are key providers of services in rural
areas. The study also revealed that there are problems limiting use and access to ICTs
sendees, such as lack of knowledge of use and function of new ICTs among others. The
emphasis to undertake more research on ICT education in enhancing access of rural people
to training and knowledge of use of ICTs. Also the emphasis should be made to use ICTs
as radio, television, cellular phone, private telekiosk phone
The overall objective of this study was
services. Data were analyzed by SPSS and LIMDEP computer programmes. The results
major recommendations of this study are as follows: There is essentially a need and
degree of participation in community organizations, business and government
iii
to provide agricultural information, which is needed to solve problems pertaining to input
supply and market prices of agricultural produce.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
information, Rural households, Communication technologies, Social and economic development