M. Sirajul Islam*
Swedish Business School, O¨rebro University, Fakultetsgatan 1, 701 82 O¨rebro, Sweden
A? ke Gro¨nlund
Swedish Business School, O¨rebro University, Fakultetsgatan 1, 701 82 O¨rebro, Sweden
Mobile phone for development; Human capital; Farmers; Bangladesh; Developing countries; Media literacy; Digital divide; Agricultural market information services
Socio-economic and Policy
Adoption of technology
This paper is based on a survey, observations, and interviews directed toward farmers in Bangladesh (n = 420). The fieldwork was carried out from November 2007 to February 2008. The questionnaire included sections on demographics, personal situation, farming situation including methods and produce, information and market, media and communication technology. There were structured as well as open-ended questions. To allow comparison, several questions were identical to the ones used in a previous study (Islam & Gro¨nlund, 2007). In addition to the questionnaire, data were collected by means of observations, interviews, and conversations (by video and face to face) with relevant actors on several occasions by the first author. Some of them were retailers and wholesalers of agricultural produce, fertilizer dealers, researchers and officers of the Ministry of Agriculture and officials of the mobile phone operators. During the observations, the author took notes about how the rural people use mobile phones in a certain context. This helped the authors to contextualize the empirical findings. Secondary sources of information such as websites, books, newspapers and journals were also used to understand other aspects of the situations.
Out of 87,362 villages (as of the 2001 census) of the 64 districts of Bangladesh, 420 farmers from 50 villages of 13 districts of 5 out of 6 divisions (except the eastern hilly district) were selected as follows: Barisal: 1 district, 3 villages . Chittagong: 4 districts, 7 villages . Dhaka: 3 districts, 21 villages . Khulna: 3 districts, 7 villages . Rajshahi: 2 districts, 12 villages.
The sample size may seem small considering the total of around 15 million farm families in Bangladesh (BBS, 1999). However, it should be noted that except for the small tribal and hilly area of east and south-east, Bangladesh is culturally and ethnically a homogeneous country and most of the rural areas are generally similar. While selection of the above districts and villages was done conveniently, the farmers within the respective villages were selected randomly. A comparison with national statistics for income levels and distribution also shows our sample to be reasonably representative.
Data collection was done by asking respondents in their work fields, markets, houses or when they were passing their leisure time in street-side tea shops. Except for one district (Natore) which was covered by the first author, the fieldwork was carried out by trained surveyors (university students) who were familiar with the local situations. They were only responsible for asking questions in the native language (Bangla) and accordingly filling in the pre-defined questionnaires and taking some photos. The role of the second author in this study was mainly to take part in analyzing the data and to interpret the results in accordance with the research questions as stated. The data were analyzed by descriptive (frequency and percentage) and inferential statistics (linear regression) using SPSS v 16.0.
Information Technology for Development Vol. 17, No. 2, April 2011, 95 –111
Making farmers in developing countries more informed about market opportunities is generally considered the most important path to development. This paper has investigated some social aspects of the farmers in Bangladesh that affect the uptake of mobile technology in general and particularly the attitudes toward information pertaining to the marketing of produce. We found that. Mobile phones are used even among the poorest farmers. Income is not a factor that predicts mobile phone ownership and use. Education is not a significant predicting factor. Even people with little or no formal education have and use mobile phones. However, for SMS use education is a factor. . Age is a statistically significant predictor. Younger people and people with children are more likely to have a phone. 2/3 of the farmers have easy access to a phone; while only 37% have a mobile phone themselves another 29% use one from family members, friends, a nearby shop or a VP lady. The indirect users consider the mobile phone a medium readily usable and truly a part of their communication toolbox. . The role of the village ladies is still important, but not as crucial as before, as private and community use has increased dramatically. Only 12% of those who do not own a phone go to village ladies. The rest go to family members or friends (49%) or a nearby shop (37%). . Mobile phones are used mainly for voice communication. Only 20% use SMS, and even among them use is quite sparse – only 5% are daily users. However, the number is up from 8% in 2006 potentially indicating a trend that mobile phone users over time become more sophisticated. . Attitudes toward a mobile-phone-based AMIS are very favourable. While only 37% actually have a phone of their own, twice as many would like to have agricultural information accessible by phone. This reflects the considerable community use (Section 6.2). Information preferences include not only local market information, but also interest in district and capital ones, indicating interest in better knowledge of the whole market system.
Some studies claim that financial affordability is one of the main predictors of mobile phone ownership for the poor people ( Barrantes & Galperin 2008; Deepak et al., 2008; Rice & Katz, 2003). Our study finds, to the contrary, that mobile phone ownership does not depend on income or education. Among other predictors, Rice and Katz (2003) find marital status, while Wei and Kolko (2005) mention prestige of the older users. These findings are reflected in our study as we find that “modernity” – being young and having children – are also predictors. Overall, this means that it is at least theoretically possible to reach the poorest farmers by this medium, provided the information is useful and usable.
As human capability is the basic fuel for development (Sen, 1999), one of the fundamental ways of achieving the capabilities for human capital is the acquisition of media literacy. Our study finds that even poor farmers in Bangladesh today see the mobile phone as a communication tool readily available to them. Even though their use today is mainly social, they also see ways in which it can be used for professional information purposes, such as agricultural market information. The study also shows that proficiency is still to be increased – use of SMS and other more advanced services is increasing but still small – but there are learning processes in place through local community sharing.
The study fills a gap in the literature as most studies concern technical aspects of electronic services. As development starts with humans and the use of mobile phones for accessing information is critical to professional performance, we study the human aspects and assess people’s readiness for taking one particular step. Although the study was limited to Bangladeshi farmers, the findings can at least be considered for the countries having a similar socio-economic context. Future research could include testing the findings in other developing countries and with a larger sample. More important, however, is to design and test AMIS that can deliver information as requested by farmers in this study. While our study indicates that the soil for mobile-phone-based AMIS is fertile, designing usable and affordable services is a challenge. Therefore, there is a need to design services to match not just individuals’ requirements but also the specific context of shared or community use.
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