Socio-Economic Characteristics Enhancing Farmers’ Use of Mobile Phones to Access Agricultural Information in Tanzania

Subject Areas : Agricultural Extension

Siwel Nyamba ¹

1 - Department of Agricultural Extension and Community Development

Received: 2021-03-02 Accepted : 2021-07-26 Published : 2021-09-01

Keywords: Mobile phones, Agricultural Information, Socio-demographic characteristics,

Abstract :

This paper sought to address the effect of farmers’ socio-economic characteristics on their use of mobile phones to access agricultural information. Largely, literature acknowledges that information is becoming an important ingredient in agriculture. Similarly, literature reports farmers in Tanzania lacking 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. The question a researcher asking why farmers in Tanzania not fetching the potential mobile phones offers for agricultural development .Through face-to-face approach, 240 individual respondents were interviewed. A regression analysis ruled out variables that significantly influenced farmers’ use of mobile phones to access agricultural information, including their; age, marital status, literacy levels, farming systems, farm size, income levels, sources of agricultural information, awareness, type phone owned whether featured or simple phone, frequent of contact with other sources, skills in using mobile phones to access agricultural information, supports from others, scale of production and distance from market. The study concludes that, the named variables above have an influence on the use of mobile phone to access agricultural information. Therefore, we recommend that, whatever efforts meant to address the need for mobile phone application in agriculture by farmers, one must consider such variables before embarking on other capabilities.

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