Digital Inclusion and Rural Agricultural Development: Socioeconomic Determinants of Mobile Phone–Based Information Use and Tomato Productivity in Bangladesh
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Abstract
Despite the growing push to bring mobile phones to smallholder farmers for access to crop information, there is limited evidence for productivity gains for high-value crops. This study aims to determine the constraints of informative mobile phone usage and its impact on tomato output from 200 tomato farmers of Noakhali Sadar in Bangladesh through a survey. Structured interviews were used to gather the data, which were then analysed using a Cobb–Douglas production function and OLS estimation as well as logistic regression. Education, credit access, group membership, household income and market distance had significant positive influence on the likelihood of informative mobile phone use (p < 0.05). Yield was significantly higher (p < 0.01) in informative use, land being under tomato crop and extension contact and lower in higher seed cost. Pest management, cost savings and timely farm operations were major advantages, and weak government support and limited credit availability were major constraints reported by farmers. There are opportunities to increase digital literacy, rural credit, and extension services to improve the effectiveness of agricultural advisory services delivered via mobile.
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