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      Mobile phone use is associated with higher smallholder agricultural productivity in Tanzania, East Africa

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          Abstract

          Mobile phone use is increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa, spurring a growing focus on mobile phones as tools to increase agricultural yields and incomes on smallholder farms. However, the research to date on this topic is mixed, with studies finding both positive and neutral associations between phones and yields. In this paper we examine perceptions about the impacts of mobile phones on agricultural productivity, and the relationships between mobile phone use and agricultural yield. We do so by fitting multilevel statistical models to data from farmer-phone owners ( n = 179) in 4 rural communities in Tanzania, controlling for site and demographic factors. Results show a positive association between mobile phone use for agricultural activities and reported maize yields. Further, many farmers report that mobile phone use increases agricultural profits (67% of respondents) and decreases the costs (50%) and time investments (47%) of farming. Our findings suggest that there are opportunities to target policy interventions at increasing phone use for agricultural activities in ways that facilitate access to timely, actionable information to support farmer decision making.

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          Most cited references35

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          Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa

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            The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money

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              Research Approaches to Mobile Use in the Developing World: A Review of the Literature

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: ResourcesRole: SupervisionRole: ValidationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: Funding acquisitionRole: Project administrationRole: ValidationRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: MethodologyRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: MethodologyRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Formal analysisRole: Validation
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: ResourcesRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                6 August 2020
                2020
                : 15
                : 8
                : e0237337
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Department of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, United States of America
                [2 ] Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America
                [3 ] Environmental Studies Program, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America
                [4 ] Department of Geography, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America
                [5 ] Jornada Experimental Range, United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service, Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States of America
                [6 ] Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America
                [7 ] Fairview High School, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America
                International Food Policy Research Institute, UNITED STATES
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7434-1500
                Article
                PONE-D-20-05740
                10.1371/journal.pone.0237337
                7410319
                32760125
                b8126d3d-6f7a-4c40-953a-cc9cce67d7cc

                This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.

                History
                : 27 February 2020
                : 23 July 2020
                Page count
                Figures: 3, Tables: 4, Pages: 16
                Funding
                Funded by: University of Colorado's Research and Innovation Seed Grant Program
                Award Recipient :
                This work was supported by the University of Colorado’s Research & Innovation Seed Grant Program.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Engineering and Technology
                Equipment
                Communication Equipment
                Cell Phones
                People and Places
                Population Groupings
                Professions
                Agricultural Workers
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Agriculture
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Animal Studies
                Experimental Organism Systems
                Model Organisms
                Maize
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Model Organisms
                Maize
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Eukaryota
                Plants
                Grasses
                Maize
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Animal Studies
                Experimental Organism Systems
                Plant and Algal Models
                Maize
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Research Design
                Survey Research
                Surveys
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Agriculture
                Farms
                People and Places
                Geographical Locations
                Africa
                Tanzania
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Agriculture
                Crop Science
                Crops
                Cereal Crops
                Custom metadata
                Data cannot be shared publicly due to IRB protocols and standards of privacy and confidentiality. Data are available by request from the University of Colorado Boulder Research and Innovation Office ( rio@ 123456colorado.edu ) in conjunction with the corresponding author (contact via aquandt@ 123456sdsu.edu ) for researchers who meet the criteria for access to confidential data.

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                Uncategorized

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