Impacts of an agricultural smartphone application on farmers' livelihoods and agricultural practices

ผลกระทบของการใช้แอปพลิเคชันด้านการเกษตรบน สมาร์ทโฟนต่อความเป็นอยู่และการทำการเกษตรของเกษตรกร

Name: Jan Libera

ThaSH: Agriculture

Classification :.DDC: 630

ThaSH: Smartphones

Abstract: Over the last years, the interest in agriculture has grown among international organisations and within governmental agencies. Along with the new investments in agriculture, the use of information and communication technologies has become more popular in agricultural development and extension. Smartphones, combining user-friendly phone features with mobile internet, are increasingly available and affordable for a large share of the global population. It is expected that the next wave of smartphone users will come from remote rural areas. Therefore smartphones and their applications are of high interest for the agricultural sector. As a middle-income country, Thailand has a growing number of smartphone users, also within the agricultural community. As a result smartphone applications have been introduced to improve the situation and agricultural practices of farmers in the country. So far there have been several studies trying to analyse the impact of information and communication technologies on agricultural development and extension, mainly in Africa and South Asia. However, no overall conclusive evidence has been presented yet, and research on smartphones and their applications are limited. Therefore, for each project or initiative, the potential and real impacts have to be analysed to ensure their sustainability. This study analyses the smartphone application called “Farmer Info” provided by the Rak Ban Kerd Foundation with the support from the mobile phone provider Total Access Communication Public Company Limited under their corporate social responsibility campaign. The quantitative results indicated that the application has a significant impact on the income of farmers and partly on their selling price. Interviewees did not confirm this finding in the research area. However, the interviewed farmers confirmed the significant impact of the application on the agricultural practices using videos as a form of extension. The results show that users of the application apply fertilisers and pesticides less frequently, spend less money on them and tend to use more organic inputs. Although the application shows positive impacts on the situation of Thai farmers, it performs poorly when compared to several sustainability indicators used for such projects. As part of a corporate social responsibility campaign the application is limited to users of the above mentioned mobile phone provider. This is highly criticised by various users and limits the scaling potential and therefore positive impact on Thai agriculture. Overall this study was designed in an explorative way, and further research is required to fully capture the potential of smartphones for the Thai agricultural sector and the farmers’ livelihood situation.

Chiang Mai University Library

Address: Chiang Mai

Email: cmulibref@cmu.ac.th

Name: Jitti Pinthog

Role: Chairman

Name: Manoj Potapohn

Role: Member

Name: Regina Birner

Role: Member

Created: 2017

Modified: 2020-01-02

Issued: 2020-01-02

วิทยานิพนธ์/Thesis

application/pdf

CallNumber: Th 630 L695I 2017

eng

DegreeName: Master of Science

Level: Master's Degree

Descipline: Sustainable Agriculture and Integrated Watershed Management

Grantor: Chiang Mai University

©copyrights Chiang Mai University

ลำดับที่.	ชื่อแฟ้มข้อมูล	ขนาดแฟ้มข้อมูล	จำนวนเข้าถึง	วัน-เวลาเข้าถึงล่าสุด
1	susag80217ljan_full.pdf	5.53 MB	2	2021-04-17 01:24:43

ใช้เวลา

0.02583 วินาที