Dialing into Agricultural Innovation Via Mobile Phones: Experiences of Smallholder Cocoa Farmers in Sekyere South, Ghana.

Résumé

Over the last two centuries, traditional methodologies for disseminating technologies to farmers have undergone significant evolution, paving the way for technology-based approaches. The study, therefore, investigated the use of mobile phones by smallholder cocoa farmers to access agricultural information. A survey design was employed, and a sample of 244 farmers was selected using a multi-stage sampling technique. Stata version 17 was used to analyse the data. The use of mobile phones by farmers for accessing agricultural information is relatively low. The most commonly accessed agricultural information via mobile phones includes cocoa market prices (26.63%), planting techniques (24.2%) and access to credit (24.18%). Cocoa farmers generally disagreed with using mobile phones for agricultural information, with mean indices of 2.46 for production, 2.50 for varieties, 2.28 for marketing, and 2.40 for practices. The binary probit model revealed that age (5%), years of education (5%), access to credit (10%), and years of farming experience (5%) significantly influence the use of mobile phones to access agricultural information. The cost of mobile phones is a primary challenge that farmers face in accessing agricultural information. Addressing these challenges will be instrumental in promoting the effective use of mobile phones for extension delivery, ultimately benefiting cocoa farmers and contributing to the development of the agricultural sector.

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