PROF. NYIKAL ROSE ADHIAMBO

The recent introduction of mobile phone-based money transfer (MMT) services in developing countries has generated a lot of interest among development partners. It facilitates transfer of money in a quick and cost effective way. It also offers an easy and secure platform for small savings to majority of rural populations with no access to formal financial services. However, the impact of MMT services on smallholder agriculture has not been documented. This study therefore contributes to pioneering literature on the impact of MMT, especially in agriculture. It provides information regarding financial intermediation to the excluded through the use of new generation Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools especially the mobile phone. The study employs propensity score matching technique to examine the impact of MMT services on household agricultural input use, agricultural commercialization and farm incomes among farm households in Kenya. It uses cross-sectional data collected from 379 multi-stage randomly selected households in Central, Western and Nyanza provinces of Kenya. The study found that use of MMT services significantly increased level of annual household input use by $42, household agricultural commercialization by 37% and household annual income by $224. We conclude that MMT services in rural areas help to resolve an idiosyncratic market failure that farmers face; access to financial services. We therefore recommend that other developing countries should follow the Kenyan model and provide an enabling environment that would facilitate entry and survival of MMT initiatives.

Smallholder farmer access to agricultural finance has been a major constraint to agricultural commercialization in developing countries. The ICT revolution in Africa has however brought an opportunity to ease this constraint. The mobile phone-based banking services that started in Kenya urban centers have spread to rural areas and even other countries. Using these services farmers could receive funds invest in agriculture finance transactions. This study examines the awareness and use of m-banking services among rural farmers in Kenya. It also assesses the factors conditioning the use of such services. The study finds high awareness of m-banking services among the smallholder farmers. It also finds that education, distance to a commercial bank, membership to farmer organizations, distance to the m-banking agents, and endowment with physical and financial assets affect the use of m-banking services. It discusses the implications of these findings for policy and practice.