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The Impact of Mobile Service on Agriculture

BY Soko Directory Team · June 2, 2016 07:06 am

Sub-Saharan Africa now has more than 650 million mobile phone subscribers. Mobile technology is especially transformative for the agriculture sector. Mobile phones are the best means of communicating and of information sharing in any field. Be it information on weather forecasts, fluctuating market prices, or helpful livestock care tips, all these are available to farmers in the developing world.

In the current day, farmers need more information on farming modern farming methods that they use to increase their yields. Farmers need up-to-date information more than ever, but the changing climate and new types of crops and animals demand that farmers learn new skills and have access to more information.

Technology has had great impact in the agricultural sector. Farmers can easily access information on which seeds would do best in specific regions in terms of growth and disease-resistance, and helps farmers find where to buy them. Typically, African farmers have for a long period had little or no access to the day-to-day information that’s vital to their business, such as weather reports and market prices for crops. Such problems were addressed by the invention of mobile applications that sends out weather forecasts, advice on best agronomic practices, and price updates for major crops.

Read: Importance of ICT in the Agricultural Sector

One of the largest challenges traditionally experienced by Africa’s smallholder farmers has been a lack of transparent information about the market prices of crops. A number of new mobile phone-based services is, however, addressing this problem by giving farmers access to market prices, enabling them to negotiate better deals with traders and improve the timing of getting their crops to market.

Farmers can now access market prices for their products. Mobile phones allow farmers to gain access to vital information about prices of crops before they travel long distances to markets. Cell phone services employ SMS text messaging to quickly transfer accurate information about wholesale and retail prices of crops. Farmers can also negotiate deals with traders and improve their timing of getting crops to the market. 

Mobile services can also provide farmers with a safety net for rains, floods, droughts, pests, and diseases. The mobile phone is a ubiquitous tool present in all remote places, especially in villages, where it is sometimes the only piece of technology people own. And these are the area where majority of the people engage in large scale farming practices.

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system. Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory

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