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Mobile phone use is associated with higher smallholder agricultural productivity in Tanzania, East Africa
Mobile phone use is increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa, spurring a growing focus on mobile phones as tools to increase agricultural yields and incomes on smallholder farms. However, the research to date on this topic is mixed, with studies finding both positive and neutral associations between phones...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7410319/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32760125 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237337 |
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author | Quandt, Amy Salerno, Jonathan D. Neff, Jason C. Baird, Timothy D. Herrick, Jeffrey E. McCabe, J. Terrence Xu, Emilie Hartter, Joel |
author_facet | Quandt, Amy Salerno, Jonathan D. Neff, Jason C. Baird, Timothy D. Herrick, Jeffrey E. McCabe, J. Terrence Xu, Emilie Hartter, Joel |
author_sort | Quandt, Amy |
collection | PubMed |
description | Mobile phone use is increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa, spurring a growing focus on mobile phones as tools to increase agricultural yields and incomes on smallholder farms. However, the research to date on this topic is mixed, with studies finding both positive and neutral associations between phones and yields. In this paper we examine perceptions about the impacts of mobile phones on agricultural productivity, and the relationships between mobile phone use and agricultural yield. We do so by fitting multilevel statistical models to data from farmer-phone owners (n = 179) in 4 rural communities in Tanzania, controlling for site and demographic factors. Results show a positive association between mobile phone use for agricultural activities and reported maize yields. Further, many farmers report that mobile phone use increases agricultural profits (67% of respondents) and decreases the costs (50%) and time investments (47%) of farming. Our findings suggest that there are opportunities to target policy interventions at increasing phone use for agricultural activities in ways that facilitate access to timely, actionable information to support farmer decision making. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7410319 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-74103192020-08-13 Mobile phone use is associated with higher smallholder agricultural productivity in Tanzania, East Africa Quandt, Amy Salerno, Jonathan D. Neff, Jason C. Baird, Timothy D. Herrick, Jeffrey E. McCabe, J. Terrence Xu, Emilie Hartter, Joel PLoS One Research Article Mobile phone use is increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa, spurring a growing focus on mobile phones as tools to increase agricultural yields and incomes on smallholder farms. However, the research to date on this topic is mixed, with studies finding both positive and neutral associations between phones and yields. In this paper we examine perceptions about the impacts of mobile phones on agricultural productivity, and the relationships between mobile phone use and agricultural yield. We do so by fitting multilevel statistical models to data from farmer-phone owners (n = 179) in 4 rural communities in Tanzania, controlling for site and demographic factors. Results show a positive association between mobile phone use for agricultural activities and reported maize yields. Further, many farmers report that mobile phone use increases agricultural profits (67% of respondents) and decreases the costs (50%) and time investments (47%) of farming. Our findings suggest that there are opportunities to target policy interventions at increasing phone use for agricultural activities in ways that facilitate access to timely, actionable information to support farmer decision making. Public Library of Science 2020-08-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7410319/ /pubmed/32760125 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237337 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Quandt, Amy Salerno, Jonathan D. Neff, Jason C. Baird, Timothy D. Herrick, Jeffrey E. McCabe, J. Terrence Xu, Emilie Hartter, Joel Mobile phone use is associated with higher smallholder agricultural productivity in Tanzania, East Africa |
title | Mobile phone use is associated with higher smallholder agricultural productivity in Tanzania, East Africa |
title_full | Mobile phone use is associated with higher smallholder agricultural productivity in Tanzania, East Africa |
title_fullStr | Mobile phone use is associated with higher smallholder agricultural productivity in Tanzania, East Africa |
title_full_unstemmed | Mobile phone use is associated with higher smallholder agricultural productivity in Tanzania, East Africa |
title_short | Mobile phone use is associated with higher smallholder agricultural productivity in Tanzania, East Africa |
title_sort | mobile phone use is associated with higher smallholder agricultural productivity in tanzania, east africa |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7410319/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32760125 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237337 |
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