As part of the connected MobileActive.org community of practice, we feature relevant mobile research. If you've been following our Mobile Research At Your Desk Series, you already have a sense of wide range of articles that we've gathered in the mDirectory. (For a full list, see below!)
This slidecast outlines findings from a large-scale study carried out by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. Sanjay Gandhi, Gaurav Tripathi, and Dr. Surabhi Mittal interviewed 200 small scale farmers to highlight the best uses of mobiles to support agricultural productivity.
The authors organized 17 focus groups over four months across India, and conducted 46 individual interviews with subsistence farmers. In total, they spoke to 200 people, living in villages where both mobile services and agricultural information sources are available. Farmers grew a wide of crops and average household incomes varied. The researchers partnered with organizations that provided agricultural information services linked to mobile phones.
We have gathered over 230 journal articles, evaluations and reports on mobiles for development in the mDirectory - a one-stop literature bank on mobiles in social change useful for practitioners and NGOs.
In our "Mobile Research At Your Desk" series, we've featured the work of researchers in the ICT4D field, covering a range of applications. Here's a list of our slidecasts to date:
Information Technology and Rural Market Performance in Central India data sheet 1290 Views
Author:
Aparajita Goyal
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Publication Date:
Aug 2008
Abstract:
Can price information improve the functioning of rural markets in ways that benefit farmers? Beginning in October 2000, a private company established internet kiosks and warehouses that provide wholesale price information and an alternative marketing channel to soybean farmers in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Using a new market-level dataset with spatial geo-coded information, the estimates suggest a significant increase in the monthly wholesale market price of soybeans after the introduction of kiosks, lending support to the predictions of the theoretical model. Moreover, there is a robust increase in area under soy cultivation. The results suggest that information can enhance the functioning of rural markets by increasing the competitiveness of local buyers.
Does Digital Divide or Provide? The Impact of Cell Phones on Grain Markets in Niger data sheet 1766 Views
Author:
Aker, Jenny
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Publication Date:
Feb 2008
Abstract:
Due partly to costly information, price dispersion across markets is common in developed and developing countries. Between 2001 and 2006, cell phone service was phased in throughout Niger, providing an alternative and cheaper search technology to grain traders and other market actors. We construct a novel theoretical model of sequential search, in which traders engage in optimal search for the maximum sales price, net transport costs.
The model predicts that cell phones will increase traders’ reservation sales prices and the number of markets over which they search, leading to a reduction in price dispersion across markets. To test the predictions of the theoretical model, we usea unique market and trader dataset from Niger that combines data on prices, transport costs, rainfall and grain production with cell phone access and trader behavior. We first exploit the quasi-experimental nature of cell phone coverage to estimate the impact of the staggered introduction of information technology on market performance.
The results provide evidence that cell phones reduce grain price dispersion across markets by a minimum of 6.4 percent and reduce intra-annual price variation by 10 percent. Cell phones have a greater impact on price dispersion for market pairs that are farther away, and for those with lower road quality. This effect becomes larger as a higher percentage of markets have cell phone coverage. We provide empirical evidence in support of specific mechanisms that partially explain the impact of cell phones on market performance.
Robustness checks suggest that the results are not driven by selection on unobservables, nor are they solely a result of general equilibrium effects. Calculations of the four-firm concentration index suggest that the grain market structure is competitive, so the observed reductions in price dispersion are not due to greater market collusion. The primary mechanism by which cell phones affect market-level outcomes appears to be a reduction in search costs, as grain traders operating in markets with cell phone coverage search over a greater number of markets and sell in more markets. The results suggest that cell phones improved consumer and trader welfare in Niger, perhaps averting an even worse outcome during the 2005 food crisis.
AMIS proposes to improve the bargaining position of farmers, reduce transaction costs by maximizing returns, contribute to more efficient marketing, provide market information, and assist consumers. Such a system would not only be of use to farmers but also to the government and help to bring the agricultural economy to a more equitable level.
The designed system used actual agricultural data and took into account both the low literacy levels of farmers as well as the limitations of the mobile screens and text capacities. The database design uses simplified codes for the agricultural produce and market operation in Bangladesh.
The proposed commercial system will collect up-to-date market information (via cell phone or computer) fed into a database managed on a SMS Server, which would then be accessible to clients requesting price information for agricultural products via text messaging.
The text messages would both request and receive price information. Market investigators collect up-to-date agricultural commodities prices information from a grower’s – level market on market days and send price information using text messaging over cell phones into a database managed on a SMS Server, which in turn would be accessible to clients requesting price information for agricultural products through a text message request. The system provides full awareness of all parties of prevailing market prices.
Mobi is a java-enabled application allowing users to send and receive market information and other data over SMS, all from a user-friendly interface. For example, users can request commodity prices in nearby markets by choosing a location and commodity from menus. Mobi is highly extensible, allowing third party applications on the Esoko platform to include a mobile component, or to add free-form polls to the existing application.
