Mobile phones are among the most widely used tool in accessing and sharing of agricultural information among different stakeholders in agriculture sector. Timely and accurate information accessibility is capable of increasing the efficiency and this is possible through the integration of advanced information and communication technologies in agriculture sector.
Farmers during the farmer's day ceremony which was organized by RIPAT SUA Project
Interactive voice response (IVR) mobile services provide information or pose questions in the form of pre-recorded voice messages and answers to questions are given using the numeric keys on the handset or talking through the phone.
IVR services are more suited to majority of farmers as literacy is not a requirement for the use and it is more flexible than short message service (SMS) which has a character limit.
There is limited evidence on whether smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have the interest and capacity to utilize the IVR services to provide information about insect pests and to help manage them.
To attest this, IVR mobile system was designed and used to collect information on emerging insect pests from smallholder farmers in Moshi rural district, northern Tanzania. The study found the farmers were quick to learn how to use the service with high response to ‘closed questions’ than the ‘open questions’.
Assessment of the reliability of the responses given by the farmers gave a measure of confidence in their ability to provide reliable information. The survey results are sufficiently encouraging to develop an IVR system further and to start exploring how to use the information submitted by farmers to provide improved feedback to them.
Read full article here: https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/resinf/opm/2019/00000030/00000003/art00002
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