Factors influencing smartphone usage of rural farmers: Empirical analysis of five selected provinces in China

Abstract

The increasing usage of smartphones by practitioners in various fields of expertise is attracting global attention. However, scanty evidence exists on smartphone usage among rural farmers in developing countries. Using data collected from 1286 rural farming households in five provinces in China, this study investigates the factors influencing rural farmers' decisions to use smartphones. The findings from a Probit model reveal that education, health condition, asset ownership, income levels, peers' smartphone usage, internet access, cooperative membership, access to credit, and off-farm work participation are the main factors driving smartphone usage of rural farmers. The age of the farmer rather affects smartphone usage negatively and significantly. Further heterogeneous analysis shows that the influences of factors on smartphone usage vary across the survey provinces.

Keywords

smartphone usage; probit model; influencing factors; rural farmers; China

Published in

Information Development
2023
Publisher: SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD

SLU Authors

• Owusu Sekyere, Enoch

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • University of Pretoria
  • University of the Free State

Global goals (SDG)

SDG9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure
SDG16 Peace, justice and strong institutions

UKÄ Subject classification

Information Studies
Sociology (excluding Social work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/02666669231201828

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/126425