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2. Feasibility of using mobile phones as an educational medium in agricultural extension services in Guilan Province, Iran
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Allahyaria, Mohammad Sadegh (author), Atashi, Maryam Ranjbar (author), and Dunn, Emily Shea (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10476
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural & Food Information
- Journal Title Details:
- 19(2): 129-140
- Notes:
- 13 pages., via online journal., This study examined the feasibility of the use of mobile phones as an educational tool in agricultural extension services in the Guilan Province of Iran. A descriptive-survey methodology was employed on a sample population of 120 agricultural extension agents. Data were analyzed at descriptive and inferential levels using SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). The results of the factor analysis indicated that the application of mobile phones in extension activities was influenced by three factors: economic, skill, and infrastructure. These factors accounted for 52.3% of the variance. Moreover, the possibility for the development of mobile phones as an educational medium is impacted by social, financial-credit, information-communicational, psychological, and improper conditions factors that, in total, captured 70.4% of the variance.
3. Impacts of distance education on agricultural performance and household income: micro-evidence from peri-urban districts in Beijing
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Guo, Jianxin (author), Jin, Songqing (author), Chen, Lei (author), and Zhao, Jichun (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-10-30
- Published:
- Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10422
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 10(11)
- Notes:
- 19 pages., Article 3945, Via online journal., Information communication technology (ICT) has changed the traditional agricultural extension service mode worldwide. This paper examines the effects of the Rural Distance Education Project (RDEP) on the household income, agricultural productivity, and off-farm employment of farmers in peri-urban areas in Beijing. Using the survey data of 783 randomly selected farm households from 54 villages in three Beijing peri-urban districts in 2014, and the propensity score matching method (PSM), we find that the RDEP has a significant and positive effect on agricultural productivity and input use. Meanwhile, the program’s effects are heterogeneous across districts and households. For example, the RDEP has significant impacts on several outcome indicators, such as agricultural labor productivity (at a 5% level of significance), agricultural land productivity (at a 10% level), and input use intensity (at a 1% level) in Tongzhou (an agriculturally more important district, with a more intensive RDEP usage), but none of these effects is significant in Pinggu district. Furthermore, the RDEP is found to have bigger, and statistically more significant effects, for households with junior high school education than for those with either lower or higher than junior high school education. Furthermore, the RDEP is more effective for households with more assets than those with fewer assets. These results point toward the importance of using a rural distance education program as an effective extension service, and the need to take community and individual characteristics into account in the implementation and design of future programs.
4. Mobile phone usage for accessing agricultural information in southern Ethiopia
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Kaske, Deribe (author), Mvena, Zebedayo S. K. (author), and Sife, Alfred S. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-01
- Published:
- Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10492
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural & Food Information
- Journal Title Details:
- 19(3): 284-298
- Notes:
- 16 pages., via online journal., This study was conducted in Ethiopia to determine the use of mobile phones in agriculture. The study included 320 household heads who owned mobile phones. Data were collected using an interview schedule. The results revealed that the majority (90.6%) of household heads made phone calls for agricultural purposes. Over three quarters (85.9%) of the household heads received phone calls related to agriculture. Short message service (SMS) was poorly used. It is concluded that mobile phones are playing an important role as an informational medium. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture in Ethiopia needs to develop a mobile-based agricultural information dissemination system to enhance information delivery to rural farming households.