Smallholder farmers’ knowledge of mobile telephone use: Gender perspectives and implications for agricultural market development

Abstract

Recent growth in mobile telephone and mobile-based information services in many developing countries provides opportunities to reduce costly and incomplete information dissemination in the agricultural sector and ensure efficient functioning of markets. But in order to successfully use mobile phones for the optimal development of agricultural markets, understanding the impact of social structure on mobile phone adoption, its uses and perceived impacts are invaluable. Although global assessments of capacity in the use of information communication technology (ICT) devices have been considered, such assessments mask significant geo-spatial variations among local farmers—male and female—with respect to their capacity to effectively use basic mobile phone functions. Documenting and recognizing this is important for the development of national agricultural ICT policies, as well as programmes aimed at increasing farmers’ knowledge and use of ICT for agricultural marketing. This article’s contribution to agricultural marketing and the use of ICT in developing countries (such as Ghana) is anchored in the assessment of the technical capacity and mobile telephone-based market information access to farmers in selected rural districts of Ghana. The selected districts are where most households are poor and heavily dependent on farming as their mainstay, and furthermore, where market information which mobile phones facilitate is crucial to maximizing their incomes.

Mobile Technology and Gender Equality

“…Without the direct access to markets provided by mobile phones, women farmers deal with larger commodity chains, making it harder for them to retain the biggest share of their profits (Agu 2013). Similar findings from rural communities in Ghana are documented by Owusu, Yankson, and Frimpong (2018), who found the majority of smallholder female farmers to have limited or no knowledge in the use of mobile phones, thus calling for educational interventions that go beyond awareness campaigns to include building the capacity of women farmers to effectively use phones in accessing useful market information, alongside more solid ICT training in schools.…”

How do development actors do “ICT for development”? A strategy‐as‐practice perspective on emerging practices in Ghanaian agriculture

“…One of the few comprehensive sources of data on information practices in Ghana shows that in the northern region—the agricultural heartland of Ghana—mobile penetration is only 11.9% (AudienceScape, ). Penetration rates among rural female smallholders were found to be still lower (Owusu et al, ). A recent study of 314 smallholders' use of contemporary technologies found that 82% of farmers use mobile phones that are not smartphones, 58% of farmers receive IVR messages on their mobile phones, and 53% of farmers are illiterate (Esoko, ).…”

“…The literature on agricultural development by means of ICT has delineated two main approaches, focused on "market efficiency" and "knowledge dissemination" (Kendall & Dearden, 2018). Studies concerned with "market efficiency" have focused on the use of contemporary technologies-in particular, mobile-for coordinating access to agricultural inputs, receiving market information, monitoring financial transactions, storing local market trends, and market information systems (Aker, 2010;Aker & Mbiti, 2010;Miller et al, 2013;Owusu, Yankson, & Frimpong, 2017). Outside of Africa, research has also examined technologies such as e-commerce platforms (Li, Du, Zhang, & Mao, 2018) and information kiosks (Ali & Kumar, 2011).…”

“…More recent research has focused on IVR as a means of providing "questions and answers" (Kwatani & Markon, 2017;Miller et al, 2013), on the use of mobile technology for consulting with agricultural experts, for accessing weather and climate information, and even for taking photographs of agricultural demonstrations (Caine, Clarke, Clarkson, & Dorward, 2018;Martin & Abbott, 2011). While interventions using contemporary technologies have addressed farmers' perceived information needs, they have met with the criticism that the digital content is plagued by issues around scarcity, inaccuracy, and lack of sufficient explanation (Ali & Kumar, 2011;Islam & Grönlund, 2011;Mubin, Tubb, Novoa, Naseem, & Razaq, 2015;Owusu et al, 2017). Importantly, there is often a misalignment between the way farmers learn about farming and the way interventions based on contemporary technologies are delivered (Kendall & Dearden, 2018;Oreglia, 2013).…”

“…Meanwhile, studies continue to demonstrate reliance on legacy technologies and in‐person channels (Esoko, ; Hudson et al, ) as the most cost‐efficient and omnipresent vehicles for the transmission of market information and agricultural knowledge among smallholders (Flor & Cisneros, ; Prakash & De' 2007; Venkatesh & Sykes, ). Oral communication and strong peer networks dominate as farmers' information sources (Hudson et al, ; Mubin et al, ; Owusu et al, ). Reluctance to adopt contemporary technologies is compounded by challenges such as poor infrastructure, low affordability, low literacy levels, lack of conducive social norms (eg, trust), questionable content quality, and poor integration with smallholders' knowledge and needs (Burrell & Oreglia, ; FAO, ; Flor & Cisneros, ; Molony, ; Wyche, Densmore, & Geyer, ).…”