Rethinking food production: Nexus of mobile phones and production cost minimization

Abstract

Information and communication technologies are a ready tool for all strata of society and are indeed redefining the way almost everything is done. Mobile phone technology, in particular, plays a vital role in expediting improvement in the efficiency of the household resource through access to information on various available technologies. Can mobile phones improve the cost efficiency of agricultural production? Comprehension of such effect is critical, especially in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals. We addressed this topic using cross-sectional data from smallholder maize producers in Zambia. The Stochastic Frontier Analysis was applied to estimate cost efficiency. The results indicate that mobile phone use improves the cost efficiency of maize production significantly and as such, adopters have made a rational decision to adopt mobile phone use for information access. Precisely, we found a 10.2% efficiency gap in favor of users. Nevertheless, if non-users were to adopt mobile phones for agricultural information access, maize production per hectare would increase by 21.38%. Eventually, food production would be increased in an environmentally friendly manner and the price of maize would be set at a competitive price within the region because agricultural inputs would be allocated cost efficiently. Therefore, in an attempt to minimize production cost in food production, this study strongly endorses the use of mobile phones for agricultural information access.