WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • MARCH 2016 39 Aquaculture productivity in Uganda is less limited by technical or genetic barriers, compared to a lack of implementation of best practices for producing fish in earthen ponds and cages. Most small-scale fish farmers in Africa have limited access to reliable information about improved farming methods. Access to appropriate information, inputs, and technical support are significant determinants of agricultural productivity and business success. With corresponding innovation in existing social and institutional arrangements, mobile phones have potential to increase the income of small-scale fish farmers (Verheye 2000). As mobile phones converge with notebook and tablet devices, opportunities will proliferate. Affordability will remain an issue, but cell phone capability and market penetration will grow. Little is known about the use of mobile phones and the needs and interests of fish farmers in Uganda. Information Communication Technologies in African Agriculture The emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has implications for social and economic development throughout the world (Ogunsola 2005). As with other economic sectors, effective agricultural development requires access to information. Information and Communication Technologies aid in transmission of knowledge that can be used by producers to improve their enterprise. ICT-based services such as information, advice, inputs, finance, and other resources can enhance a farmer’s participation in commercial value chains. Despite growth of ICT, many Africans still lack the basic communication infrastructure necessary to access information and make timely decisions. Much of the information provided by extension workers is sometimes out of date, irrelevant and not applicable to small farmers’ needs, leaving farmers with very little information to improve productivity. Information and Communication Technologies enables extension workers to gather, store, retrieve and disseminate a broad range of information needed by farmers; ICT can help bridge the gap between extension workers and The Role of Mobile Phones in Facilitating Aquaculture Development in Uganda Moureen Matuha, Joseph J. Molnar, Claude E. Boyd and Jeffery S. Terhune farmers. Information and Communication Technologies can empower farmers to solve their own problems and enable extension personnel to provide more relevant assistance needed by farmers. Use of Mobile Phones in Agriculture Only in recent years has mobile communications technology been widely accepted as an enabler of sustainable growth. The mobile phone is a key innovative technology in support of livelihoods, with evidence of growing integration into agricultural extension, information provision and marketing systems in subSaharan Africa (Munyua 2008, Gakuru et al. 2009). Mobile phones have a rapid diffusion rate and facilitate farmers’ access to information, helping increase bargaining power, control over external events, development of new skills and growth of revenues (Myhr and Nordstrom 2008). Information and communication technologies could aid rural development and poverty reduction within developing countries because of an increase in local people’s ability to obtain information for sound decision-making (Hudson 2006). Mobile phones provide information on market, weather, transport and agricultural techniques through concerned agencies and departments (Aker 2011). The primary mechanism by which mobile phones affect market-level outcomes appears to be a reduction in search costs; traders operating in markets with cell phone coverage search over and sell in more markets (Aker 2008). After adopting the use of mobile phones, many dairy farmers in the Bugerere District in central Uganda began using them to connect to Food Net, a service that supplies up-to-date price information for agricultural commodities and contact details for interested buyers via text message (Karamagi and Nalumansi 2009). Gender disparities significantly affect adoption because most women have limited access to assets. Men are more likely than women to use mobile phones for business purposes, such as accessing market information, while women were more likely to use mobile phones for kinship maintenance. In southwestern Uganda, women used mobile phones less than men, but they (CONTINUED ON PAGE 40) Figure 1. Focus group discussion held outdoors
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