The mobile phone revolution, the Internet and rural electricity: What are the implications for food security in Africa?

Abstract

The theorized benefits of mobile phone and Internet penetration have not been sufficiently tested, especially on cross-country data. Using a dataset involving 48 regionally grouped African countries and a robust dynamic system GMM model, this study attempts to fill this gap. In carrying out this study, we adopted an empirical strategy that allowed us to estimate the specific and complementary impacts of mobile phone, Internet, and rural electricity on food security, from panel and regional comparative perspectives. The findings indicate that: the incremental and intra-temporal effects in food security situation linger awhile; the promotional effects of ICT development on food security are more induced by mobile phone development than by Internet development; mobile phone and Internet have a robust and stable synergistic effect on food security; contrary to expectations, there is no complementarity between ICT protocols and rural electricity, with the impact of the latter on food security being more distortive than promotional; and that the promotional benefits of ICT protocols on food security are dependent on a country’s capacity to resolve inherent deficiencies in rural electricity energy supply, climate conditions and credit challenges. Policy-wise, the findings confirm how the convergence and complementarity between mobile phone and Internet connectivity can conditionally be enhanced in the case of Africa; and how such convergence can potentially facilitate the catch-up between the lagging Internet access and the booming mobile phone subscription and to enhance the quality, quantity and relevance of the information contents of the ICT protocols.