The Revolution of Mobile Phone-Enabled Services for Agricultural Development (m-Agri Services) in Africa: The Challenges for Sustainability

Abstract

The provision of information through mobile phone-enabled agricultural information services (m-Agri services) has the potential to revolutionise agriculture and significantly improve smallholder farmers’ livelihoods in Africa. Globally, the benefits of m-Agri services include facilitating farmers’ access to financial services and sourcing agricultural information about input use, practices, and market prices. There are very few published literature sources that focus on the potential benefits of m-Agri services in Africa and none of which explore their sustainability. This study, therefore, explores the evolution, provision, and sustainability of these m-Agri services in Africa. An overview of the current landscape of m-Agri services in Africa is provided and this illustrates how varied these services are in design, content, and quality. Key findings from the exploratory literature review reveal that services are highly likely to fail to achieve their intended purpose or be abandoned when implementers ignore the literacy, skills, culture, and demands of the target users. This study recommends that, to enhance the sustainability of m-Agri services, the implementers need to design the services with the users involved, carefully analyse, and understand the target environment, and design for scale and a long-term purpose. While privacy and security of users need to be ensured, the reuse or improvement of existing initiatives should be explored, and projects need to be data-driven and maintained as open source. Thus, the study concludes that policymakers can support the long-term benefit of m-Agri services by ensuring favourable policies for both users and implementers.

A case study of the relationship between smallholder farmers' ICT literacy levels and demographic data w.r.t. their use and adoption of ICT for weather forecasting

“…These conditions, the authors argue, range from "high illiteracy rates to poor technology infrastructure to a requirement for smartphone-based technology of which very few smallholder farmers in the developing world can take advantage". Emeana et al (2020) highlight the uneven distribution of the impact of this digital revolution, which Harris and Achora (2018) argue could further exacerbate the "digital divide". It is in this regard that some studies, particularly in Africa, question the impact and sustainability of this digital revolution (Emeana et al, 2020).…”

“…Emeana et al (2020) highlight the uneven distribution of the impact of this digital revolution, which Harris and Achora (2018) argue could further exacerbate the "digital divide". It is in this regard that some studies, particularly in Africa, question the impact and sustainability of this digital revolution (Emeana et al, 2020).…”

Determinants of adaptation to climate variability among farming households in Tyhume Valley communities, Eastern Cape province, South Africa

“…As shown by the marginal effect where farming household with access to cell phones have 14% probability of adapting to climate variability compared to farming households with no access to cell phones. Emeana et al (2020) noted that cell phones improve farming households' ability to access information from host information providers such as seed and pesticide researchers, input dealers and agricultural extension officials from the state. Age of the respondents was significant at 10% significant level.…”

Mobiles for Development – A Comparative Analysis of Business Decisions

“…Most research on the potential of 'mobiles for development' (M4D) value added services (VAS) focuses on the outcomes of the service (Ahmed, Gagnon, Hamelin-Brabant, Mbemba, & Alami, 2017;Baumüller, 2018;Coleman, 2018;Emeana, Trenchard, & Dehnen-Schmutz, 2020;Iribarren, Cato, Falzon, & Stone, 2017;Marcolino et al, 2018). M4D VAS covers the use of mobile for delivering context specific information and transactions relating to agriculture, health, governance and combinations of them for foci such as nutrition and climate change (variously called mAgric, mHealth, mNutrition, etc.)…”