Understanding the impacts of Mobile technology on smallholder agriculture.

Abstract

Abstract This chapter presents the case of how information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly mobile phones, impact agricultural development by facilitating step-wise changes in smallholder farmers' information and agriculture practices in rural Ghana. The study shows how mobile phones introduced among smallholder farmers create 'hybrid' information practices that are consistent with both existing cultural-historical norms around farming and ICT use (a smallholder logic) and with policy imperatives aimed at re-casting farming 'as a business' and promoting value-chain integration through ICT (a value chain logic). Additionally, the study observes how actors in rural agriculture and agriculture partners are able to leverage 'hybrid' practices in advancing their value chain agenda. In designing interventions, these actors put forward 'hybrid' approaches, combining technologies, which align with the rural oral tradition with ones that correspond to contemporary business norms (e.g., mobile phones).