Mobile telephony reduces the distance between small farmers and local organizations, facilitating and making more effective exchange of information and knowledge.
Through the use of mobile phones, social networks are strengthened, farmers grow and the cost of access to information is reduced. Are immense possibilities offered by SMS text messages (Short Message Service) to share information at low cost and instantly.
Mobile phones represent the most successful case of how to bridge the digital divide, bringing tangible economic benefit and serving as agents of social mobilization through improved communication. They’re coming to where you have not fixed yet or the Internet and aim to become the first and only universal access to ICT in the public sector and private sector.
Mobile telephony has grown much faster than any other communications technology in history. Some data say so: Mobile phone subscriptions in developing countries have increased by 500% since 2000. It is expected that by 2010, 90% of the world covered by mobile networks and five years later, mobile phones provide data, Internet and voice services to more than 5 million people, double the number now connected .
Over time, new technologies related to mobile will become more accessible from the economic point of view, thereby facilitating the promotion of initiatives by governments and institutions.
To the extent that the penetration is broad and there are more people connected, and not just a service that rural populations can talk on the phone, but to generate new services and tangible economic benefits from the availability of these new technologies. That is no longer talk about subsidies but investment.
The SMS short text messages have been unusually successful. Since its inception, the service was widely adopted as an alternative to voice calls.
Mobile phones have revolutionized communications worldwide, especially in developing countries where terrestrial infrastructure is lacking in many rural and even urban areas. They represent the only means of communication for hundreds of millions and opened up enormous economic opportunities for their users. No wonder then that the first tests with mass texting to improve agricultural trade have been conducted in Africa and Asia and replicated later in America.
The key to success will be the producer and see only the most simple use of technology but who sent the information using the most sophisticated equipment. The secret is to use appropriate content.
Information related to transaction costs is a significant part of total costs incurred by producers. However, what they need is to contact dealers or directly with consumers and meet the quality requirements by the industry.
Producers who have access to information, have a better idea of ??the minimum price with which to begin negotiations. They also include fluctuations in prices, knowledge that guidance on what crops to grow to achieve a higher return.
Some development projects fail because their designers did not understand local problems before providing solutions. The mobile phone is different because the very nature of the technology allows adoption by the community to address their own problems.
Since the http://www.tellmycell.com/ are available that enable organizations of small farmers to start using SMS, effectively and in an organized manner in order to improve the marketing of agricultural products. These are programs that allow you to send and receive text marketing without connecting to the Internet as used for this mobile phone signal. The latter is of importance because the mobile phone coverage is much broader than the Internet.