The Experience of Chamwino Small-Scale Farmers on the Use of Smartphone in Farming Business, Tanzania

摘要

The pervasive use of smartphones to acquire diverse information among small-scale farmers has received little attention in studies. This study, therefore, explored the experience of Chamwino's small-scale farmers of the usage of smartphone to address ownership pattern, farming practices, information needs, encountered challenges and training needs for future technological alterations. The study employed qualitative design for data collection and thematic analysis was used. The findings revealed that the longer the distance from Dodoma city centre, the fewer the number of smartphones owners. That, less than half of farmers in Mvumi and Makangwa owned smartphones while, less than a quarter in Itiso, Mpwayungu, and Chilonwa Divisions. That youths owned more smartphones than elders, and mostly second-hand that were inadequately used for farming business. This was because, there was no special farming enabled information system to disseminate agricultural information. Accordingly, the frequently used features were SMS and voice calls. Consequently, farmers need information on inputs, weather, market and finance among others. Alternatively, there was no official training on the use of the device thus the new technology was therefore underutilized. Furthermore, challenges identified were farmers' lack of expertise of utilizing the device, uncomfortable large size and the interface of smartphones. Accordingly, farmers were interested in capacity building as many features were not used adequately. Consequently, the study provides deep understanding of farmers' experience and recommends for technological alteration to increase usability of the device.