Information Management Needs among Smallholder Farmers

Abstract

Thirty-seven (37) smallholder poultry farmers from four Arusha and Meru district villages in the Arusha region were interviewed to gather insight into their farms’ information management needs and challenges. The farmers were interviewed to obtain information regarding their farming system, mobile phone usage and record-keeping behaviour. The primary aim was to acquire the smallholder poultry farmer’s needs regarding information management and gather the possible requirements to assist in the system development process. The farmers interviewed kept 300 to 1000 chickens for either meat or egg production. The interviews revealed that 30% of the farmers kept records of varying quality in farm logbooks. The main interest in record-keeping was on three farm production, sales, health, and finances. All farmers owned at least one mobile phone and used its primary communication function to run their businesses, and 75% of the farmers kept their records in diaries and notebooks for a short period. None of the farmers used the cell phone to record detailed information on the farm, although some used the calendar for vaccination reminders and mobile money transactions. With observed farmers’ information management needs, the system that will help them record their data and manage the information, give back analyses reports, and register their farms is required by the farmers to satisfy the needs.