Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Socio-Economic Impact of Mobile Phones on Indian Agriculture

Contents:

Author Info

  • Surabhi Mittal

    (ICRIER)

  • Sanjay Gandhi
  • Gaurav Tripathi

Abstract

Deficits in physical infrastructure, problems with availability of agricultural inputs and poor access to agriculture-related information are the major constraints on the growth of agricultural productivity in India. The more rapid growth of mobile telephony as compared to fixed line telephony and the recent introduction of mobileenabled information services provide a means to overcome existing information asymmetry. It also helps, at least partially, to bridge the gap between the availability and delivery of agricultural inputs and agriculture infrastructure. This paper investigates a series of questions that explore this topic : What kind of information do farmers value the most to improve agricultural productivity? Do mobile phones and mobile-enabled agricultural services have an impact on agriculture? What are the factors that impede the realisation of the full productivity enhancing potential of mobile phones? The answers to these questions have important implications for mobile operators, for information service providers, and for policymakers. The quality of information, its timeliness and trustworthiness are the three important features that have to be ensured to enable farmers to use it effectively to improve productivity. The study found evidence that mobiles are being used in ways which contribute to productivity enhancement. However, to leverage the full potential of information dissemination enabled by mobile telephony will require significant improvements in supporting infrastructure and capacity building amongst farmers to enable them to use the information they access effectively. As mobile penetration continues to increase among farming communities and information services continue to adapt and proliferate, the scope exists for a much greater rural productivity impact in the future.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.eaber.org/node/23188
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by East Asian Bureau of Economic Research in its series EABER Working Papers with number 23188.

as in new window
Length:
Date of creation: Feb 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:eab:wpaper:23188

Contact details of provider:
Postal: JG Crawford Building #13, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government, Australian National University, ACT 0200
Web page: http://www.eaber.org
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords: telecommunications; India; agriculture;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Kumar, Praduman & Mittal, Surabhi, 2006. "Agricultural Productivity Trends in India: Sustainability Issues," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 19(2006).
  2. Reuben Abraham, 2007. "Mobile Phones and Economic Development: Evidence From the Fishing Industry in India," Information Technologies and International Development, MIT Press, vol. 4(1), pages 5-17, October.
  3. Muto, Megumi & Yamano, Takashi, 2009. "The Impact of Mobile Phone Coverage Expansion on Market Participation: Panel Data Evidence from Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 1887-1896, December.
  4. Fan, Shenggen & Hazell, P. B. R. & Thorat, Sukhadeo, 1999. "Linkages between government spending, growth, and poverty in rural India:," Research reports 110, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Glendenning, Claire J. & Ficarelli, Pier Paolo, 2012. "The relevance of content in ICT initiatives in Indian agriculture :," IFPRI discussion papers 1180, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
  2. Babu, Suresh Chandra & Glendenning, Claire J. & Asenso-Okyere, Kwadwo & Govindarajan, Senthil Kumar, 2012. "Farmers’ information needs and search behaviors: Case study in Tamil Nadu, India," IFPRI discussion papers 1165, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eab:wpaper:23188

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Shiro Armstrong).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.