The Revolution of Mobile Phone-Enabled Services for Agricultural Development (m-Agri Services) in Africa: The Challenges for Sustainability
| Autor: | Katharina Dehnen-Schmutz, Liz Trenchard, Ezinne Merianchris Emeana |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
sustainability challenges
media_common.quotation_subject Geography Planning and Development lcsh:TJ807-830 lcsh:Renewable energy sources cell phones m-agri services 02 engineering and technology 010501 environmental sciences Management Monitoring Policy and Law 01 natural sciences Literacy strategies for improvement 020204 information systems 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering Market price Quality (business) Marketing Financial services lcsh:Environmental sciences 0105 earth and related environmental sciences media_common lcsh:GE1-350 Renewable Energy Sustainability and the Environment business.industry lcsh:Environmental effects of industries and plants policy implications Livelihood lcsh:TD194-195 smallholder farmers’ livelihood africa Mobile phone Scale (social sciences) Sustainability business |
| Zdroj: | Sustainability, Vol 12, Iss 2, p 485 (2020) |
| ISSN: | 2071-1050 |
| Popis: | The provision of information through mobile phone-enabled agricultural information services (m-Agri services) has the potential to revolutionise agriculture and significantly improve smallholder farmers’ livelihoods in Africa. Globally, the benefits of m-Agri services include facilitating farmers’ access to financial services and sourcing agricultural information about input use, practices, and market prices. There are very few published literature sources that focus on the potential benefits of m-Agri services in Africa and none of which explore their sustainability. This study, therefore, explores the evolution, provision, and sustainability of these m-Agri services in Africa. An overview of the current landscape of m-Agri services in Africa is provided and this illustrates how varied these services are in design, content, and quality. Key findings from the exploratory literature review reveal that services are highly likely to fail to achieve their intended purpose or be abandoned when implementers ignore the literacy, skills, culture, and demands of the target users. This study recommends that, to enhance the sustainability of m-Agri services, the implementers need to design the services with the users involved, carefully analyse, and understand the target environment, and design for scale and a long-term purpose. While privacy and security of users need to be ensured, the reuse or improvement of existing initiatives should be explored, and projects need to be data-driven and maintained as open source. Thus, the study concludes that policymakers can support the long-term benefit of m-Agri services by ensuring favourable policies for both users and implementers. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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