12 pages., via online journal., This study explores the status of mobile usage among the agriculture community in the North‐Central province of Sri Lanka in relation to interactions with major agriculture stakeholders. The objectives of the study were to study the factors affecting the mobile use by farmers, farmers' willingness to receive agricultural information through mobile communication technology, and awareness on mobile based agriculture information systems. Primary data were collected at two stages using two structured interview schedules (N=390, n=65). According to the findings the access to mobile phone was considerable higher among the study group while age and education had an effect on using a mobile phone. Only a few farmers have yet started using them efficiently for agriculture and other commercial purposes. A considerable number of farmers used the mobile phones to contact input suppliers, buyers, agriculture extension officers and other farmers in the area, mostly those who represent community based organizations.
10 pages., via online journal., A baseline survey of ownership or access to radio and mobile phone was conducted in seven districts of eastern Uganda in 2015. The purpose of this survey was to assess the role of radio and modern communication technologies to promote push-pull technology as an integrated management approach to control striga and stemborer and improve soil fertility. The selected districts are where icipe is currently disseminating the technology. The survey was conducted from seven districts where 30 respondents from each were identified for the study. Semi structured questionnaires were administered where data including household demography, ownership and or access to radio and mobile phone was collected. The data were analyzed using STATA (version 13). The findings show that there are over eight (Ateso, Luganda, Samia, Japadhola, Lugisu, Lusoga, Kiswahili, and English) languages spoken in the surveyed districts. Most of the respondents speak more than one language. Overall, ownership of radio and mobile phone was at 82% and 87% respectively with slight differences between men and women. Moreover, those who do not own radio and mobile phones also stated that they have access to one. On average, 83% of the respondents (174 out of 210) said that they do receive text messages, whereas, only 53% of the respondents indicated that they also send text messages. A great proportion of the respondents (91%, 80%, and 77%) received agricultural, weather and market information through the radio. Over 65% of the respondents reported benefiting from the agricultural programs broadcasted via radio. 45 and 50% stated that they benefitted from market and weather information. However, the level of benefit rendered from mobile phones with regard to agricultural, market and weather information was negligible. The study showed that radio and mobile phones are best suited mass communication media to transfer technologies such as push-pull to address cross-cutting problems such as striga, cereal stem borer and low soil fertility. It will strengthen the agricultural extension service delivery at large.
10 pages., via online journal., The main purpose of this study was to categories and describes the profile characteristics of the women beneficiaries, to determine the use of communication sources by the women beneficiaries, and to explore the relationship between the profile characteristics of the women beneficiaries of RDRS with their use of communication sources. Data were collected using interview schedule from a sample of 112 women beneficiaries selected from the population of 280 by multistage random sampling procedure from five villages of Rajendrapur union under sadar upazila of Rangpur district. Use of communication sources by the RDRS women beneficiaries was determined on three dimensions viz. attitude, contact and application, and finally the use of communication sources index (UCSI) was computed. The UCSI ranged from 45.24 to 277.68 with a possible range of 0 to 300. Based on UCSI, among the 10 communication sources the first five communication sources were husband (277.68), neighbours (219.05), RDRS-worker (205.95), RDRS group meeting (193.45) and relatives (160.42). However, the last five communication sources were RDRS officer (134.82), mobile phone (112.80), television (68.75), inputs dealer (63.99) and SAAOs (45.24). The findings revealed that the highest proportion (38.39%) of the women beneficiaries had medium use of communication sources compared to 33.93% low use and 27.68% high use. Among the ten selected characteristics of the women beneficiaries’ education, farm size, annual income, daily time use, credit received and participation in IGAs showed positive significant relationship while fatalism showed negative significant relationship with their use of communication sources. Age, family size and dependency had no significant relationships. The women beneficiaries of RDRS had moderate exposure with various communication sources so, the concerned Government Organizations and Non-government Organizations engaged in extension activities should make necessary arrangements for improving the use of communication sources by them in income generating activities.
