Empowering female vegetable farmers: Mobile phone utilization, benefits, and constraints

The study assessed mobile phone usage as an agricultural tool among female vegetable farmers in the Osogbo metropolis, Osun State, Nigeria. Specifically, it described the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, investigated the extent of mobile phone usage in vegetable farming, identified the benefits of mobile phone usage for vegetable farming and identified the constraints to using mobile phones as an agricultural tool. Using a three-stage sampling procedure, 120 respondents were sampled and interviewed. Data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, means, and standard deviation. The results revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 48.98±7.72 years. The majority (84.2%) were married, engaged in vegetable farming for profit (78.3%), and acquired their vegetable production knowledge from their parents (59.2%). The mean farming experience was 9.36±8.23 years. Regarding mobile phone usage indicators, linkage with transportation to the market ranked highest with a mean score of 1.56. Among the benefits of mobile phone usage, improved service delivery ranked first with a mean score of 4.51, while poor network access ranked highest among the constraints to usage of mobile phone, with a mean score of 3.86. In conclusion, there was a medium level of mobile phone usage among the female vegetable farmers in the study area. The study recommended that service providers should enhance their network infrastructure to facilitate mobile phone usage for vegetable farming activities in the study area.