Abstract

Author: asper Chidi Ejikeme and Olajide Julius Filusi

Doi: 10.26480/bosoc.02.2025.82.86

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

The study assessed the utilization of mobile phone technologies among rice farmers in Zamfara State, Nigeria. Specifically, it identified the types of mobile phone technologies utilized, determined the awareness level about mobile phone applications, examined the perception of the respondents towards mobile phone applications, and the perceived benefit of utilizing mobile phone applications for rice farming. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select 138 respondents through a random sampling procedure. A validated interview schedule was used to collect primary data quantitatively. Results showed that WhatsApp, a Mobile banking app, Facebook, and GPS mobile apps (94.9%, 91.3%, 75.4% and 57.2%) ranked the highest mobile phone applications identified. More than half (58.0%) indicated a moderate awareness, and about two-thirds (62.4%) were indifferent towards the use of mobile phone apps for rice farming. Also, the majority (73.9%) of the respondents indicated that mobile phone applications moderately have a beneficial impact on rice production, and 60.1percent of the respondents indicated a moderate level of utilization. There exists a significant positive relationship between awareness and the utilisation of the mobile phone apps (r=0.257**). Mobile phone technologies were moderately utilized. Mobile phone apps/technology developed for farmers must be simple to operate.