Towards Smart Farming? Mobile Technology Trends and Their Potential for Developing Country Agriculture

Mobile phones have reached some of the most remote parts of the globe. They offer opportunities to improve the delivery of services to farmers in developing countries, for instance by facilitating access to information, financial services or output markets. A review of the global situation suggests that much of the focus has been on offering services through SMS and voice-based interfaces to cater for users with low-tech phones which greatly limits the sophistication of the services that can be provided. This chapter assesses how current mobile technology trends may allow for the provision of more advanced agricultural services in the future. Three trends are identified, i.e. the growing diversity of mobile connected devices to access the services; the 'Internet of Things' which links objects and people through the network; and the increasing ubiquity of mobile networks and expanding user base which facilitate the collection and sharing of data and knowledge. The chapter presents two scenarios for the evolution of these trends based on a number of assumptions and highlights possible implications for the provision of services to farmers.