Efficiency of Using Smart-Mobile Phones in Accessing Agricultural Information by Smallholder Farmers in North Kordofan – Sudan

The access to agricultural information in Sudan continues to be challenging to farmers due to use of inadequate sources and traditional extension approaches. The rapid growth of smart-mobile phones usage in developing countries resulted in several advantages compared to other alternatives in term of costs, geographic coverage and ease of use. This research was conducted in North Kordofan Sate to explore the role of smart-mobile phone in accessing agricultural information. Primary data were obtained by structured questionnaires and focus group discussion through participatory rural appraisal and observation while secondary data were collected from scientific journals, books and authenticated web sources. A number of 230 respondents (10% from total farmers) were interviewed and five focus group discussions were done. Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) version 22 was used to analyze the data with aid of descriptive statistics and Chi-squire Test. The result indicated that most of the respondents fall in age group between 21-40 years, and they depend on farm activity. There was 90% of farmers processed mobile phone since more than three years ago, 90.8% continued to use smart mobile phone to access agricultural information and showed positive contribution towards income generation. The results also revealed that there was positive perception towards using mobile phones which showed more efficient in use than radio and TVs. The results showed great advantages of using smart mobile phone where 75.2 % of respondents preferred to get agricultural information, logistics and other needs through successful communication in the mid of agricultural season. Results of Chi-squire test showed significant differences between the parameters tested. The study recommended that farmers should be connected with mobile phones to admit ease communication with agricultural extension offices and quick access to their needs and logistics.


Introduction
Agriculture is the main activity of the communities in Sudan [1], the Sudanese agricultural sector contributes about 36.5% to the country's GDP [2].Access to information is even more critical to develop rain fed agricultural [3]Improvement in agriculture is possible with the adoption of new and modern farming techniques. Government and non-governmental organizations have realized this to boost up agricultural production, Further, information delivery is a key task of government and it is their responsibility to keep farmers updated [4]Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a vital role in disseminating agricultural information and keep farmers connecting with agricultural value chain [5], and extension agent has a strong reliance on information exchange among farmers [6]to improving productivity at the village level [7]. Due to specialization of smallholder farmers by low average yield, there is a great extent limited agricultural transformation strategies implemented over the years this could be attributed to rely on third parties for agricultural information [8]. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are unique tools against poverty alleviation [9] this may enhance agricultural advisory services. The need for better information, through mobile phones can be considered as the perquisites for the farmers to benefit from using mobile communication technologies to improve need access [10] as well as a tool for development at local and community levels [11] Recently, using modern technologies is considered as an appropriate for farmers' need and increase in out-put of crops [12], these approaches increase farmer's basic knowledge and ability to make their own choices and decision on particular technologies [13]. Farmers assume to become key players in technology identification, generation, and dissemination [14] if quick exchange of agricultural information between the extension agents and farmers are integrated [15] A major effort of government aimed at raising the agricultural productivity and competitiveness of smallholder farmers in Sudan involved reforming and implementing agricultural adversary services [16]. Agricultural extension could be expected to enhance rural development through significant improvements in supporting capacity building amongst farmers and raise awareness on the existence of various sources of knowledge [3]to enable them use the information they access effectively [17],in Sudan extension service face some challenges due to socio-economic changes [18] and inappropriate communication channels to be used by extension personnel [19]. They suggest two types of 'gaps' contribute to the productivity differential: the technology gap and the management gap [20] Against this backdrop [21], the main research question here is -to what extend using smart mobile phone influence farmers in North Kordofan in accessing useful agricultural information? This research paper aims to Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3240758 identify the updated agricultural information shared through mobile phones, to determine the appropriate time of receiving agricultural information, and to explore the challenges encountered using mobile phones in area.

Study site description
North Kordofan State is located in the central part of Sudan [22]Arid and semi-arid zones that cover the largest part of this State [23]. It lays between latitudes 12º 10'and 16º 30'N, longitudes 27º and 32º 35'E is divided into eight localities [24]Figure1.Theaverage annual rainfall is about 300-mm, consisting of storms of short duration between July and September with the highest rainfall generally occurring in August [25]. The soil of the site lies within the sand dune area locally known as "Goz" soil. The site is naturally dominated main grasses include namely Huskneet (Cenchrusbiflorus), Shuleny (Zorniaglochidiata) and Bigual (Blepharislinarifolia). Such tree as Humied (Sclerocaryabirrea), Higlig (Balanites), Arad

Population and sampling procedures
The targeted populations of this study are small scale farmers using mobile phones for accessing agricultural information to improve their productivity and bridging their gap of Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3240758 knowledge and skill regarding agriculture in the area. A number of 918 A [28] farmers use mobile phones for access agricultural information in rural area within North Kordofan State.
Purposive sampling technique was used and 230 respondents (25% from the total frame) were interviewed in study area based on the population intensity. 5 Focus Group Discussion (FGD) will be conducted with key informants, farmer's advisory contact.
The following table (1)

Socioeconomic characteristics
The frequency distribution of demographic characteristics revealed that most of the respondents were in age group between 21-40 years followed by 41-60 years. This indicates that those farmers are in productive age and the number of youth was high compared to older.
Gender composition consists of high presence of male (table,2), however, our results contradicted with Meera et al. (2004) who reported that young people are effective more in ICT program for agriculture [29]. Educational background of the respondents showed that 45.3 % (mean of total percent) studied secondary school and majority of them were married.
Analysis of income and the income sources indicated that most of the respondents generate about 2000 -3000 SDG per month from framing sources. This output passes in line with [1] and [30] which said that farming activities represent the main occupation in developing courtiers. The results of chi-squire test indicated that there were no significant differences between educational levels and ages regarding using mobile phones in solving farmer's problems and needs (table 3 and 4 respectively).

Ownership and reason of possessing mobile phone
Recently mobile phones are used by a broader smallholders farmers than computers [8] Prices addressed that nearly 90% of farmers get their mobile phone for more than three years, figure   2 and proper access to knowledge is not significantly to the type of mobile phone, table 5.
This trend has also been spread into the farmers witch realized the importance of using mobile phones in life [32] the highest subscription was noticed in the year 2008 while in the year 2000-2001 the highest percentage change (149.3%) was realized [33].
On the other hand majority of farmer used mobile phone for social and business purposes, figure 3, moreoverintable6it was stated the highly significant differences between frequent Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3240758 use of mobile phone and farmer mobile phone for different purposes owned mobile phones [34]. The results also showed that were continuously used smart mobile phone 4. This in line with [10], [35] communication technology provide opportunities to linkin chain effectively [5].

Percentage (%)
Socialization Business farmer needs. In literature it was found that farmers used intensively purposes [8] A majority of farm households in developing . The results also showed that vast respondents used smart mobile phone to access agricultural information [35]and [9]

Perceptions towards using smart mobile phone
The new agricultural technologies are diffusing through different much faster than ever before[1 well-suited for the African agrarian communities that allrespondents fully agree with the adoption agricultural process focusing on the agriculture value chain has the largest agricultural extension system in Sub ICT [37]. The results extend to indicated that farmers beside using mobile phone they depend on others source of getting agricultural info listening to radio programs, friends and relatives, respectively and they perceived it very good in case of urgent technologies are diffusing through different channels [12]mobile phones are also regarded as potentially powerful and agrarian communities [33]. The finding in figure 5, fully agree with the adoption of using mobile phone (smart or normal g on the agriculture value chain [36]. Studies show that Ethiopia has the largest agricultural extension system in Sub-Saharan Africa and . The results extend to indicated that farmers beside using mobile phone they depend on others source of getting agricultural information these are visiting extension offices, listening to radio programs, friends and relatives, TVs and agricultural association and they perceived it very good in case of urgent, figure 8and 9 Farmers perception toward importance of smart-mobile phones in agricultural information Farmers vision toward connecting farmers with smart-mobile phone

Comparison and pattern of
A range of information transfer techniques has been to information and services are important to agricultural revaluation that the using of mobile phone in accessing agricultural information using radio and TVs, figure 10 and poor access to information 12,Furthermore, success of the green revolution in Asia, African countries need to ensure that agricultural productivity be raised in a sustainable way

and pattern of sharing information
A range of information transfer techniques has been reported in the literature to information and services are important to agricultural revaluation [13] the Results depicted mobile phone in accessing agricultural information is highly efficient than , figure 10.This mainly due to insufficient old communicating tools and poor access to information [17]and in line with [12] above cited, success of the green revolution in Asia, African countries need to ensure that agricultural productivity be raised in a sustainable way [38]. On the other hand the finding respondents communicate through voice call as ion sharing, figure 13. [39] Stated that more and more people access to information through voice call. [40] Argue that the farmers were using other means to access agricultural production information these included the use of the internet and the networks and linkages with other farmers to access agricultural production information.
ed that vast respondents 75.2 % in average they prefer to get their need through successful communication in the mid of season to ensure high yield, figure 1 farmers in developing countries have access to a growing number of agricultural through their mobile phones (m-services) [41] and has significantly impacted sharing information and type of mobile phone (smart and normal) therefore lead to ,  [15] above cited, figure 11 1nd success of the green revolution in Asia, African countries need to ensure that

Advantages of using mobile phone
The penetration of mobile service in Sudan has reached vast stakeholders, the results in figure   15, depicted that 74.1%they used mobile phone for logistics, 47.9% for getting finance this result in line with [44] stated that agricultural development programs are bedeviled with many constraints like poor access of funding and production inputs among farmers, but in Ethiopia the farmers used mobile communication in marketing [45], 91.7% for information regarding pests and diseases, 85.4% for price prediction, 98.5% for socialization, 44% for agricultural phenomena photographing, 78.9% for administration, 90.1% for risk avoidance and minimizing loss, and 94.9% for accessing urgent agricultural services, also result Professionals in the green industry can have access to pictures, information, and recommendations for managing weeds, diseases, and pests (e.g. Turf grass Management App) [46]. Also results extend to indicated that smart mobile phone have positive contribution and other donor/local agencies [47]. The results in table 9 revealed that there is a highly significant difference between using mobile phones in accessing agricultural information and agricultural revolution, this in line with [48] and [49] reported that developed ICT technologies have positive role in improving livelihood and sustainable smart agricultural production. Besides making access to knowledge and information cheaper, one more area in which mobile phones usage can aid the process of socioeconomic development in rural areas by bringing about an increase in per capita income and life skills and by facilitating poverty reduction. The adoption of this technology faces several challenges, however, such as the prevalence of illiteracy, power shortages, lack of trust and the high cost of smart phones [50] the other challenges were cited in table 10, such as Vanish of credit, make some inconvenience, vanish of phone battery, make some social problem, planning farm stealing , Know-how problem, network problems, difficult in dealing with technology, and dissemination fake news.

Result of group discussion
The results of table10 showed that the conducted in the area, these were type of agricultural information accessed, using mobile phone (normal or smart), phone, and main challenges face the farmers.
level of respondents awareness, on the other hand awareness is one of the main reasons for farmers not adopting t [21]some studies suggest that the poorest and gain from the use of mobile phones due to a lack of alternative means of communication [48].

Conclusion and recommendations
The increasing penetration of mobile phones, especially in North Kordofan State could be a unique opportunity that could provide farmers with relevant information for their farming production. Using mobile phone enabled the farmers to have a positive impact on better gourd communicate with producer's network and improved farming community's awareness and cheaper source of getting information. Quantity and quality of accessed knowledge is not significantly affected with type of mobile phone. Majority of farmers have positive perception towards using mobile phones and they are still looking to connect other stakeholders with mobile phone. Main challenges that the rural communities have faced regarding using mobile phone were language barrier, vanish of credit, make some inconvenience, vanish of phone battery, make some social problem, planning farm stealing, Know-how problem, network problems, difficulties in dealing with technology, and dissemination fake news. The finding of this research will give insight to many extension service and policy makers to understand what farmers actually need.
Farmers' information needs at various stages of crop production which were not clearly documented, therefore the study recommend that understanding farmers' information needs can result in provision of information services that better serve farmers' requirements, also connecting stallholders farmers with mobile phone and train them to use mobile phone at highest level to integrate this technology into rural livelihood activities.