Mobile Apps : Innovation Driving The New Found Prosperity And Independence Of Small Scale Farmers

In 2008, sales of cell phones across the world reached 1.28 billion (Solomon, 2011). As the cell phone industry grew, so did their features. Now, cell phones come equipped with GPS tracking, various types of applications (apps), e-mail programs, usage of the Internet with high speeds, and cameras. Different cultures have different wants and needs for what they desire in a phone.

“More than three billion people worldwide now use the internet (Time), and 80 percent of them access if from their smartphones” (Smart Insights). A smartphone is a mobile phone that performs many of the functions of a computer, typically having a touchscreen interface, and much more. There is an abundant amount of smartphone brands out there in the world and while they all cost different prices, they all perform the same job. Each person uses their smartphone for various reasons, whether it’s for work or to make calls or texts. Smartphones have changed society in various ways, both good and bad. Although countless individuals think that smartphones have ruined American society, smartphones have actually benefited society because of more safety precautions, information on hand, and entertainment.

The Ethiopian economy is based on subsistence agriculture, whereby 85% of the population produces its own food (CSA, 2008). In a recent development plan the country aims at transforming the agricultural sector from subsistence to a market oriented production system. This transformation plan entails the participation of smallholders in both input and output markets. The policy targets diary farmers in pre-urban areas. This is because Ethiopia, despite its largest livestock population in Africa, has one of the lowest dairy production and consumption in the continent. The country has an average production of 4billion litter of milk per annum and a consumption of 25.6kg/year per person (Ayenew, 2008). Food consumption in Ethiopia largerly depends on cereals. Enjera-be wet, a traditional bread with spiced source is the most common food. The fasting season among the Orthodox church followers restricts animal source food consumption for about five to seven months per year for adults. Diets recognized as monotonous, cereal based and lacking diversity also lacks essential micronutrients and can contribute to the burden of malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, especially for children, who need energy and nutrient-dense food to grow and develop both physically and mentally (see Vakili et al., 2013; Arimond and Ruel, 2004; (Bukania et al., 2014)

From pulling the ploughs with cows in the 18th century to monitoring the entire farm with mobile apps today, technology has changed farming and food production greatly for the people. However, technology in food production has long been the center of heated conversations and endless debates. How has such technology influence the lives of people today, as well as the environment they live in? Michael Specter in his article “Roundup and Risk Assessment” argues that technology in farming, such as herbicides, are beneficial to the general population, while Michael Pollan in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma:

$250 million program to help farmers update technology and one $100 million fund for dairy

The use of mobile devices has become so commonplace today that you can hardly step out your front door without them. We have become tethered to technology. Our dependence upon this technology is not the problem, how and where we choose to use it is.

In “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”, Jean M. Twenge criticizes how smart phones have negatively transformed today´s post-millennial generation by putting them into a mental-health crisis. The author compares her generation when they were teenagers, with the kids of nowadays who spend most of their time in their phones instead of having social interaction. Twenge also states how this post-millennial generation tends to fall into depression, and homicidal rates have risen due to this technological impact. I believe that as the technology advances, the generations that come tend to go backwards in the way they behave in their everyday life.

If businesses provide its workers with a cell phone then they can get the workers to do more tasks.

Recently drones have been seen more and more around the world and maybe it’s because they are easier or the common folk to obtain. A few farmers have been using once only military available drones to keep better track of the water usage in they’re farms. Drones used by these farmers “are using sensors and robotics to bring big data to precision agriculture” (Anderson 1) that data will help farmers use less water and less pest aside improving the environment and the overall quality of the produce available in the market for the consumers.

Combining this two set of skills, the farmer can take strategic decisions to improve his productivity, efficiency, and profitability), Milk Ca$$h App (the main objective of the app is be used as a tool to add invoices into software. The app can also be used as a research tool for dairy information, and additionally, it can also simulate the economic benefits of a dietary formulation change), and with the Milk Ca$$h Database & Advertising (characterize areas where dairy farmers tend to use more technology, make more investments, manipulate diets, etc.; this information can be used by companies to guide products development and future investments. Also, the Milk Ca$$h can be used as an advertising channel, that is a greater opportunity for companies to associate their brand and products with farm

Smartphones can be life savers. Let's say that you are stuck in the woods and you don't know where you can go for safety. A while back it must’ve been hard to carry a huge map and compass around in your bag. But now you can

Heifer International is a global organization that focuses on providing communities in developing counties with better farming techniques and education, allowing them to pull away from the never-ending cycle of poverty. Founder Dan West came up with the idea for Heifer International when he was an aid worker during the Spanish Civil War. During his time as an aid worker, one of his tasks was to provide hungry refugees with a single glass of milk. While doing this he suddenly had the thought “What if they had not a cup of milk, but a cow”(World Hunger and Poverty). From this one thought Heifer International was born. Since its creation in 1944, Heifer International has grown tremendously, operating on four continents and tailoring their

At first, I was going to analyze and write about smartphones, however I found it more efficient to write also about a particular smartphone to narrow it down from such a broad technological artifact, such as answering who designed it, what for, what their position and the impact they want to have on society was, and their future visions. Therefore, I chose the iPhone as the centerpiece of smartphones I will be analyzing and an emphasis on applications. However, some of this information is relevant and interchangeable to all other smartphones. IPhones and smartphones allow us to access constant information and offer it the way we want it, as it is completely customizable now to fit our learning style. They keep us organized, send information to us in different ways, even shape and offer solutions such as for politics, economies, problems whether individual ones or globally. Smartphones capitalize on shared knowledge and has opened the door to inventors and those who have the knowledge to make our world a more connected place and lives easier by sharing it with us to use. We are able to communicate with other people far off, through space-time compression or shrinking-space to gather news and information.

3. It can be argues that Smartphone are increasingly becoming an everyday necessity in people’s live because of the important functions that they can do and the fact that they are all available in just one handset.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the world has become a smaller place. The time used to travel to far distances has diminished; with the growth of new technologies, traveling and communicating have become simple daily tasks for many people. Through the growth of global communication, people have become closer to others across the globe, and business has gone world wide. One invention that came along with the technological revolution is the cell phone. Cell phones allow us to be reachable anywhere at anytime, letting us communicate even during travel. As time becomes more valuable for people, the importance of accessibility to communication also increases. With cell phones, the communication and