Investigation of the utilisation of mobile applications as a source of agricultural information among smallholder farmers

This study investigated the utilisation of mobile applications as a source of agricultural information among smallholder farmers in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. A survey of 100 smallholder farmers was conducted using structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to analyse the data. The results show that the majority of farmers (51%) were female, and 50% had no formal education. WhatsApp was the most widely used mobile application (81%), with 73% of farmers using it daily. The study found that 64% of farmers benefited from using mobile applications, citing time savings and access to accurate information as the primary advantages.