Analyzing ICT-enabled agricultural advisory services in Pakistan: evidence from a marginalized region of Punjab province
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Analyzing ICT‑enabled agricultural advisory services in Pakistan: evidence from a marginalized region of Punjab province Nasir Abbas Khan1 · Qijie Gao1 · Shoukat Ali2 · Babar Shahbaz2 · Palwasha Khan3 · Muhammad Abid4 Accepted: 17 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract In Pakistan, due to the asymmetries in farmers’ information access, many ICT-based initiatives have been taken as an alternative to conventional agricultural extension approaches. Recently telecommunication sector of Pakistan has launched farm advisory services for reaching farmers’ information needs. This paper analyzed the telecom sector’s mobile-based farm advisory services (mFAS) by exploring, provided content, farmers’ use, experiences, and its associated factors using the Likert scale and bivariate Probit regression. The study employed a multistage random sampling technique to collect data from the smallholders of Muzaffargarh district of Pakistan. Findings revealed that 70% of the respondents were subscribed to mFAS. Results further indicated a vast gap between the farmers’ access and practical use of provided information in which weather forecast reported the most, while market updates reported the least utilization gap. Similarly, reduced transportation cost was ranked the most, while avoiding potential crop damages was ranked as the least perceived indicators of effectiveness. The study further reported one-way communication mode and farmers’ limited skills of mobile phone use as the major constraint in the use of the services. The results of the Probit model found a significant positive relation of farmers’ education, credit utilization, and educated family members, while a significant negative relation of farmers’ age with the use of mFAS. Based on findings, this study highlights the need for an interactive communication mode, context-specific advisory services, and farmers’ training and education for the successful utilization of these services. Keywords Mobile advisory · ICT in agriculture · E-extension · Smallholder farmer · Punjab · Pakistan
* Qijie Gao [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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1 Introduction Agriculture plays an important role in the economic development of the global South, where it is mainly dominated by marginalized and smallholder farmers [1], who account for more than 2–3 of the population in most of the developing countries in the region. In most developing countries, a large number of people are very often engaged in agricultural activities and rely mainly on subsistence farming to meet their dietary and livelihood needs [2]. Being an important stakeholder in the agriculture sector, small landholders do need adequate agricultural knowledge and low-cost technologies to improve their crop and farm productivity and improve their economic wellbeing [3, 4]. Despite being in large numbers and having a significant role in securing local food security, these communities r
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