FEASIBILITY STUDY ON USE OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR AGRICULTURE IN SRI LANKA
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2012
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
Agriculture sector plays an important role in Sri Lankan economy with more than 70% of the population living in rural areas depending on agriculture for their livelihoods. In agriculture sector of Sri Lanka, ICT tools mainly used in agricultural extension and education, marketing and agricultural research. Mobile technology is a major ICT initiative which was recently introduced in collaboration with government and private organizations. Mobile technology, as strong ICT initiative, plays a major role in agriculture sector and it has the potential to provide solution to the existing information asymmetry in agriculture sector of Sri Lanka. Mobile technology use in Sri Lanka also shows a dramatic improvement. Although Sri Lankan mobile communication sector is developing rapidly, its contribution to mobile technology applications and services for agriculture sector is considerably low. The study was focused on finding feasibility of use of mobile technology for agriculture in Sri Lanka. Research consisted with two parts; desk research and questionnaire based survey. The desk research involved in examining the existing literature and mobile-technology services in agriculture sector Sri Lanka. Survey was carried out in central province in Sri Lanka where up country vegetables are highly grown in. Randomly selected 160 vegetable farmers was surveyed using structured questionn‘ire during June 2012 to August 2012 in Nuwaraeliya, Kandy and Matale districts. Mbile Phone Use Index and Problem Facing Index were calculated. Multiple Linear Regression was used to find out the relationship between use of mobile phone for agriculture purposes and other explanatory variables.Results revealed that the use of mobile phone for agriculture purposes (UMPAP)- significantly .determined by the farmers attitude towards the technology at 5% probability level. Farmers used mobile phone mostly to obtain agriculture marketing information. 77% farmers, those who used mobile phones, prefer voice calls and IVR for receiving information over SMS, MMS and E-mail. Overall research findings suggested that it is feasible to use mobile technology for agriculture in Sri Lanka.
Key Words: ICT, Mobile Technology, Agriculture, Farmers
Description
Keywords
Export Agriculture Degree Programme (EAG)