Abstract
BackgroundThe rapid growth of mobile phones in Ghana has opened up the possibility of delivering timely and useful weather and market information to farmers at costs lower than traditional agricultural extension services. In this paper, we assess the usefulness, constraints, and factors likely to influence farmers’ decisions to patronize mobile phone-based weather and market information.MethodsWe rely on primary data from 310 farmers in the Upper West Region, an understudied part of Ghana. We subject the data to three types of analysis. First, we model farmers’ decision to patronize mobile phone-based weather and market information by estimating a binary logit model. Second, we use descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing to analyse the level of usefulness of mobile phone-based weather and market information. We disaggregate the analysis by sex, income status, and age group. Finally, we use qualitative analysis to summarize the constraints associated with the utilization of mobile phone-based weather and market information.ResultsWe find that contact with agricultural extension agents and farmer-to-farmer extension services significantly influences farmers’ decision to patronize mobile phone-based weather and market information. Regardless of sex, income status, and age group, farmers generally rate mobile phone-based weather and market information as very useful. We identify inexact information, complex text messages, information that are too costly to implement, and poor infrastructure as the constraints to the utilization of mobile phone-based weather and market information.ConclusionIn order to improve the utilization of mobile phone-based weather and market information, disseminators of mobile phone-based information such as Esoko should constantly update and provide client-specific information. Improvements in mobile phone networks and related services will enhance the utilization of mobile phone-based weather and market information.
Highlights
The rapid growth of mobile phones in Ghana has opened up the possibility of delivering timely and useful weather and market information to farmers at costs lower than traditional agricultural extension services
The rapid growth of mobile phones in Ghana has opened up the possibility of delivering weather and market information through mobile phones
We empirically estimate the equation; Pr(Patronize = 1) = F (β0 + β1AEA contact + β2Farmer_to_farmer) where Pr (Patronize = 1) is the probability that a farmer will patronize mobile phone-based weather and market information, F (z) is the cumulative logistic distribution, and AEA stands for agricultural extension agent as earlier indicated
Summary
Study area The Jirapa and Lawra districts of the Upper West Region of Ghana formed our study area. We purposively sampled the Upper West Region of Ghana, the Jirapa and Lawra districts where the project is being implemented. We model farmers’ decision to patronize mobile phonebased weather and market information as a binary choice (farmers can either choose to subscribe to Esoko or otherwise). Of the sampled farmers used mobile phones to access weather and market information from Esoko. We use descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing to analyse the level of usefulness of mobile phonebased weather and market information. The ratings of usefulness, presented in the form of graphs, were done by farmers who reported patronizing Esoko’s mobile phone-based weather and market information services. We qualitatively analyse the constraints to the utilization of mobile phone-based weather and market information disseminated by Esoko. Since we did not pre-code the constraints, we summarize and discuss the responses
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