Assessment of Mobile Phones Usage in Accessing Tomato Farming Information: A Case of Kilolo District, Iringa Region

Abstract

Technological change and adoptability is a fundamental fluctuation from one stage to another. Usually any change should be delineated and differentiated from the previous situation as compared to the present situation. The study on hand has differentiated technology variation in cultivation specifically on tomato production in comparison to previous and the present eras. The major focus was on the application of mobile phones in transmission and payment modalities of information between tomato farming stakeholders to speed up the process. The conclusion of the study was based on the data gathered through questionnaires from three hundred eighty four (384) tomato cultivators in Kilolo District. It was observed that, despite of many people having mobile phones of different nature, they mostly use them to share common information and contributes very minimal on farming practices. The reality is that despite of many people having mobile phones of different nature, they mostly use to share common information but the mobiles contribute very minimal on farming practices. Therefore, the study on hand has identified such weaknesses and suggested best practices of using mobile phones to tomato stakeholders in both information transmission and payment systems. The use of mobile phones in tomato cultivation practices helped dynamically in spreading information and payments related to agriculture, eventually resulted into good quality and quantity of tomato output.