TY  - JOUR
AV  - public
A1  - Etwire, P M
A1  - Buah, S
A1  - Ouedraogo, M
A1  - Zougmore, R B
A1  - Partey, S T
A1  - Martey, E
A1  - Dayamba, S D
A1  - Bayala, J
TI  - An assessment of mobile phone-based dissemination of weather and market information in the Upper West Region of Ghana
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-016-0088-y
JF  - Agriculture & Food Security
SN  - 2048-7010
PB  - BioMed Central
N1  - This work was funded by the CGIAR Program on Climate Change, Agriculture,
and Food Security (CCAFS), which is a strategic partnership of the CGIAR and
Future Earth. The CCAFS Program is carried out with funding by CGIAR Fund
Donors, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Danish
International Development Agency (DANIDA), and the European Union (EU);
with technical support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD). The authors are also grateful to all farmers who participated in
the survey. We are thankful to Vincent, Rahinatu, Thomas, Bawa, Maxwell, Peter,
Anslem, Mavis, and Hashim for collecting and inputting the primary data
N2  - Abstract

Background
The rapid growth of mobile phones in Ghana has opened up the possibility of delivering timely and useful weather and market information to farmers at costs lower than traditional agricultural extension services. In this paper, we assess the usefulness, constraints, and factors likely to influence farmers? decisions to patronize mobile phone-based weather and market information.

Methods
We rely on primary data from 310 farmers in the Upper West Region, an understudied part of Ghana. We subject the data to three types of analysis. First, we model farmers? decision to patronize mobile phone-based weather and market information by estimating a binary logit model. Second, we use descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing to analyse the level of usefulness of mobile phone-based weather and market information. We disaggregate the analysis by sex, income status, and age group. Finally, we use qualitative analysis to summarize the constraints associated with the utilization of mobile phone-based weather and market information.

Results
We find that contact with agricultural extension agents and farmer-to-farmer extension services significantly influences farmers? decision to patronize mobile phone-based weather and market information. Regardless of sex, income status, and age group, farmers generally rate mobile phone-based weather and market information as very useful. We identify inexact information, complex text messages, information that are too costly to implement, and poor infrastructure as the constraints to the utilization of mobile phone-based weather and market information.

Conclusion
In order to improve the utilization of mobile phone-based weather and market information, disseminators of mobile phone-based information such as Esoko should constantly update and provide client-specific information. Improvements in mobile phone networks and related services will enhance the utilization of mobile phone-based weather and market information.
KW  - Agricultural extension
KW  -  Binary logit
KW  -  Esoko
KW  -  Ghana
KW  -  Mobile phone
KW  -  Weather and market information
KW  -  ICT
KW  -  Information and Communication Technology
KW  -  SMS
Y1  - 2017/04/10/
SP  - 1
ID  - icrisat10145
EP  - 9
VL  - 6
IS  - 8
ER  -