Systematic scoping review that might support further investigation on impact of mobile networks in low- and middle-income countries:
In case helpful, we recently published a Gates-funded systematic scoping review synthesizing 315 articles evidencing use and/or impacts of digital farming services in low- and middle-income countries. (We interpreted digital farming services as any agriculture-related information service , market linkage service, farming tool or financial service with a digital user interface). Potentially relevant findings include:
- Importance of mobile networks for digitizing farming services (for good and bad): Use of digital farming services was influenced by mobile network availability (according to 51 empirical studies) and mobile network affordability (according to 19 empirical studies)
- Impact evidence of digital farming services: We found 173 empirical studies reporting digital farming services outcomes (e.g. increased social inclusion, reduced income) with variable levels of rigor (which we coarsely categorized). Only a handful of studies directly analysed how mobile network access influenced these outcomes (e.g. Jensen 2007)
- Leverage of mobile networks: numerous reviewed studies found farmers creating informal digital farming services using mobile networks (e.g. pastoralists in Tanzania using their mobile phones to reduce human-wildlife conflict—Lewis et al., 2016, and farmers in Cambodia using mobile phones to get better rice prices—Shimamoto et al., 2015)
Linked here is a database of reviewed studies (filtered by country, reported outcome type etc) and linked here is the journal paper documenting the review itself. I personally read almost all of the 315 articles and would be very happy to informally help you (or anyone else reading this) navigate the resources or support in whatever other way (spent ages on this work and would love to help make it useful for OpenPhil or any other impact-oriented people) - samcoggins55 at gmail dot com
Thanks for your great work on this investigation in any case
Systematic scoping review that might support further investigation on impact of mobile networks in low- and middle-income countries:
In case helpful, we recently published a Gates-funded systematic scoping review synthesizing 315 articles evidencing use and/or impacts of digital farming services in low- and middle-income countries. (We interpreted digital farming services as any agriculture-related information service , market linkage service, farming tool or financial service with a digital user interface). Potentially relevant findings include:
- Importance of mobile networks for digitizing farming services (for good and bad): Use of digital farming services was influenced by mobile network availability (according to 51 empirical studies) and mobile network affordability (according to 19 empirical studies)
- Impact evidence of digital farming services: We found 173 empirical studies reporting digital farming services outcomes (e.g. increased social inclusion, reduced income) with variable levels of rigor (which we coarsely categorized). Only a handful of studies directly analysed how mobile network access influenced these outcomes (e.g. Jensen 2007)
- Leverage of mobile networks: numerous reviewed studies found farmers creating informal digital farming services using mobile networks (e.g. pastoralists in Tanzania using their mobile phones to reduce human-wildlife conflict—Lewis et al., 2016, and farmers in Cambodia using mobile phones to get better rice prices—Shimamoto et al., 2015)
Linked here is a database of reviewed studies (filtered by country, reported outcome type etc) and linked here is the journal paper documenting the review itself. I personally read almost all of the 315 articles and would be very happy to informally help you (or anyone else reading this) navigate the resources or support in whatever other way (spent ages on this work and would love to help make it useful for OpenPhil or any other impact-oriented people) - samcoggins55 at gmail dot com
Thanks for your great work on this investigation in any case