Working Paper

Error 404, farmer not found: Why agricultural information services must consider how smallholders use their phones

author(s)

Steinke, Jonathan

themes
  • Multifunctional landscapes
  • Climate action
  • Digital inclusion
regions
  • Colombia
  • Guatemala
  • Kenya
  • Nigeria
  • Rwanda
  • Tanzania
  • Vietnam
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full citation

Steinke, J.; Ortiz Crespo, B.; Bunn, C.; Van Etten, J.; Jimenez, D.; Le, T.T.; Manners, R.; Muller, A.; Nguyen, P.M.; Ogunsamni, T.; Schumann, C.; Simiyu, M..; Sotelo, S.; Talsma, T.; Zapata, E. (2024) Error 404, farmer not found: Why agricultural information services must consider how smallholders use their phones. Working Paper. Montpellier (France) CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation. 8 p.

Numerous barriers hinder mobile information
services in delivering information effectively to
smallholder farmers. Many of these barriers can be
explained by farmers’ habits in using their phones.
Therefore, carefully considering how exactly
farmers use their phones in specific local context
is crucial to mitigate behavior-related barriers.
We describe 18 potential behavioral barriers that
should be checked before implementing mobile
information services for smallholder agriculture.