Use of mobile phone technologies for accessing agricultural marketing information by grape smallholder farmers: a technological acceptance model (TAM) perspective

Abstract

PurposeFactors influencing the use of mobile phone technologies for agricultural market information access remain a mixed debate, and there are contradictive views among studies. This study examined factors influencing the use of mobile phone technologies for agricultural marketing information access. The study is anchored on the technological acceptance model (TAM).Design/methodology/approachA descriptive cross-sectional research design was adopted with a sample size of 400 grape smallholder farmers. A structured questionnaire and focus group discussions (FGDs) were used to gather data. Descriptive, ordinal logistic regression and thematic approaches were used in data analysis.FindingsThe study confirmed grape smallholder farmers generally considered mobile phone technologies as an appropriate communication channel to stay informed about agricultural marketing information. It was found that reliable electricity supply, relevance, timeliness, perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) of mobile phone technologies influenced the level of agricultural marketing information access.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is limited to a selected number of grape smallholder farmers in Dodoma, Tanzania, and leaves out those without mobile phones. Also, the study was cross-sectional in nature, so it may not be necessarily capable of consistently providing critical and consistent information about the same population over a series of times.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the body of knowledge by integrating the use of mobile phone technologies to access marketing information in informing policy and decision-making processes to promote grape marketing.

Understanding agricultural grower’s information seeking: An analysis of Internet sources

“…It was discovered that perceived usefulness [81][82][83][84] , facilitating conditions [85][86][87][88][89] , perceived ease of use [19,[82][83][84]90] information quality [38,51] , and social influence [28,82,[91][92][93][94] all have a favorable effect on attitude.…”

ICT acceptance, language use and information culture as tools for enhancing information literacy within smallholder maize farmers in Uganda

“…In the agriculture sector, basic ICTs like mobile phones and televisions have bridged the information gaps created by the inaccessibility of extension workers and prevalent costs associated with reaching out to official government outreach centres (Byamukama et al, 2022;Subramanian, Bozzola and Nugent, 2022;Ravindra et al, 2020). While the benefits of using ICTs are vivid, acceptance maybe influenced by the perception an individual has about the complexity and usefulness of the said technology moderated by contextual variables like social influence (Ali et al, 2020;Gani et al, 2022;Li and Wang, 2022;Nyagango et al, 2023;Silva et al, 2023). Because of the diverse communities in developing countries, fostering ICT and information usage should be customized to the social contexts of the farmers, which previous researches have underplayed (Sham et al, 2023).…”