An m-agric application for broadcasting agricultural information for subsistence farmers in rural areas of the eastern cape

Abstract

Rural subsistence farmers across Africa experience difficulties in gathering relevant and up-to-date agriculture information. This research seeks to develop a mobile application for broadcasting agriculture information to rural subsistence farmers. The researcher first began with the qualitative research phase to explore the views of participants, the qualitative phase was used to build an instrument that best fits the sample under study and then quantitative phase was used to identify appropriate instruments. There were two applications that were built in this research a mobile application and a web application. The web application was found helpful to insert, delete and update information in the database. The mobile application was developed according to requirements gathered through data collection. Data collection of the research showed that farmers want to see available bursaries in agriculture, ask questions and answer them, view sponsors, view agriculture department information, advertise products which they wish to sell, view diseases, new fertilizers and view workshops details. Farmers found the mobile application useful, usable and accessible.