The mobile divide revisited

Steinfield, Charles; Wyche, Susan; Chen, Tian; Chiwasa, Hastings

doi:10.1145/2737856.2738022

Cited by 19 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Despite the increasing number of platforms that offer agricultural information, the use of these services and access to subsequent extension services are mixed due to socio-technical challenges [3,34,43,54,56,57,72,83]. In SSA, mobile phone use is hampered in some sub-populations by the cost of acquiring phones, charging the devices, maintaining airtime, repairing phones, and network coverage issues [1,92,97], as noted in Kenya [63,93], Uganda [45], and Malawi [87]. Another limitation is the farmers' lack of technology knowledge, skills or literacy [44,62,94], and trust in technology [4] .…”

Section: Technologies For Agricultural Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

eKichabi v2: Designing and Scaling a Dual-Platform Agricultural Technology in Rural Tanzania

Raghunath,

Metzger,

Easton

et al. 2024

Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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Although farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa are accessing feature phones and smartphones at historically high rates, they face challenges finding a robust network of agricultural contacts. With collaborators, we conduct a quantitative survey of 1014 agricultural households in Kagera, Tanzania to characterize technology access, use, and comfort levels in the region. Recognizing the paucity of research on dual-platform technologies that cater to both feature phone and smartphone users, we develop and deploy eKichabi v2, a searchable directory of 9833 agriculture-related enterprises accessible via a USSD application and an Android application. To bridge the gap in affordances between the two applications, we conduct a mixed methods pilot leveraging mobile money agents as intermediators for our USSD application's users. Through our investigations, we identify the advantages, obstacles, and critical considerations in the design, implementation, and scalability of agricultural information systems tailored to both feature phone and

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Section: Technologies For Agricultural Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

eKichabi v2: Designing and Scaling a Dual-Platform Agricultural Technology in Rural Tanzania

Raghunath,

Metzger,

Easton

et al. 2024

Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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“…Despite a push to increase the amount of information communicated via mobile phones (Steinfield et al, 2015), only 3% of farmers accessed weather information through mobile phone services. For example in 2016, mobile phone subscriptions were ∼41.72 per 100 inhabitants, which has stagnated in recent years-estimations for 2018 were 39.01 subscriptions per 100 people, meaning that ∼51.7% households had access to a mobile phone (ITU, 2020).…”

Section: Access Trust and Response To Weather Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farmer Preparedness for Building Resilient Agri-Food Systems: Lessons From the 2015/2016 El Niño Drought in Malawi

2021

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Across sub-Saharan Africa, climate change is leading to increasingly erratic weather patterns that challenge farming practices, particularly for smallholder farmers. Preparing farmers for these changes and increasing their resilience to extreme weather events is critical for food security in areas where populations are increasing. The El Niño event of 2015/16 led to drought conditions in Malawi which are expected to become more normal in the future. This resulted in widespread crop failure and the need for external food aid. The experiences of Malawian farmers during this time creates an opportunity to identify areas where adaptations in land management practices as part of resilience building initiatives can prepare farmers for future climates. This paper presents results of household surveys and interviews of 201 farmers from a case study in southern Malawi. Half of the farmers surveyed practice Conservation Agriculture (CA), a Climate Smart Agriculture technology that increased resilience to this drought event. The majority of households relied on agriculture for all their livelihood streams, indicating that diversification away from sole dependence on agriculture would increase resilience. Our study shows that poorer, female farmers are less likely to practice CA than wealthier male farmers. Results also illustrate that while farmers had access to seasonal weather forecasts, a key tool to guide land preparation and planting, they remained reluctant to believe them or to amend cropping or land management practices. Agricultural extension services within Malawi can play a vital role in preparing farmers for future extreme weather events and ensuring forecast communication link to predicted agricultural impacts and land management actions for building resilience into agricultural systems. Extension services need to focus on supporting poorer female farmers to adopt CA practices and providing farmers with the tools and knowledge to respond effectively to seasonal and sub-seasonal climate information.

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“…This varies from as high as 90% in Zimbabwe (Moyo-Nyede and Ndoma, 2020), 40% in Burkina Faso, and to as low as 15% in Niger, Chad, and Mauritania (Tsan et al, 2019). This vicious gap also characterises mobile phone ownership between men and women (Henze and Ulrichs, 2016; Messenger, 2018; Steinfield and Wyche, 2013). Sub-Saharan Africa's women are 15% less likely to own a mobile phone than men.…”

Section: Mobile Phone Subscriptions and Network Accessibility In Ssamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is worsened by weak awareness and training on the new mobile and internet-based technologies and their potential towards agrarian change (Adebo, 2014; AGRA, 2015; Misaki et al, 2018). Therefore, fostering literacy and appropriate digital skills, especially among the youths, women and the elderly will be essential in keeping pace with the process of digital transformation and the building of digital societies (Misaki et al, 2018; Steinfield and Wyche, 2013; Trendov et al, 2019).…”

Section: Factors Constraining the Use Of Mobile Phone And Web-based T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unavailability and poor connectivity of both internet and mobile network services are additional barriers to the use of mobile technologies by smallholder farmers especially in remote areas (AGRA, 2015; Messenger, 2018; Trendov et al, 2019). Thus, the speed and quality of broadband services are generally poor in rural areas compared to urban areas in most developing countries (ITU, 2020; Steinfield and Wyche, 2013). Ultimately, these factors negatively impact the introduction and operationalisation of ICTs for supporting smallholder farming systems.…”

Section: Factors Constraining the Use Of Mobile Phone And Web-based T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Information and communication technologies (ICTs): The potential for enhancing the dissemination of agricultural information and services to smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa

Mapiye

Makombe

Molotsi

et al. 2021

Information Development

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The transformation of smallholder farming is poised to be one of the key drivers of achieving the dual objectives of food security and poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Smallholder farmers account for between 60–80% of the food produced in the region but face many challenges that impede their productivity. Such challenges include a lack of timely access to appropriate agricultural information and services, which results in poor decision-making, particularly in addressing challenges and responding effectively to opportunities. In that context, the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in improving accessibility to appropriate agricultural information and services presents substantial prospects for transforming the productivity and livelihoods of the farmers. Currently, the region experiences massive penetration and propagation of mobile and web-based applications. However, there is a dearth of compelling, comprehensive reviews evaluating their importance in enhancing agricultural information and services dissemination to smallholder farmers. Therefore, the current review explores the potential of enhancing agricultural information and services dissemination to smallholder farmers through ICTs and highlights gaps in their development and deployment in SSA. Five existing mobile applications used to disseminate agricultural information and services to smallholder farmers were identified, and their advantages, limitations, and opportunities were discussed. These were Esoko, iCow, Community Knowledge Workers, WeFarm and DigiFarm. The development and deployment of user-driven mobile applications that provide curated skill-sharing platforms, encourage farmers to give feedback to extension systems in real-time and promote the participation of women and youth in agriculture are recommended.

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The mobile divide revisited

Cited by 19 publications

References 26 publications

eKichabi v2: Designing and Scaling a Dual-Platform Agricultural Technology in Rural Tanzania

eKichabi v2: Designing and Scaling a Dual-Platform Agricultural Technology in Rural Tanzania

Farmer Preparedness for Building Resilient Agri-Food Systems: Lessons From the 2015/2016 El Niño Drought in Malawi

Information and communication technologies (ICTs): The potential for enhancing the dissemination of agricultural information and services to smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa

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