Mobile app for cocoa crop in Colombia: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

A study was conducted to keep scientific record of the challenges and opportunities of the insertion of a mobile app for cocoa producers in the Colombia region as a prospective tool or strategy for technological transfer and appropriation into that sector. A survey with structured and semi-structured questions that pertained to cocoa producer men and women was conducted. The questions were related to the general conditions of their labour activities and were discriminant in the following categories: cocoa-grower characteristics, farm conditions, farm characteristics, and cocoa crop. From this information, restrictions and opportunities for use of a mobile app in the cocoa sector were analysed. Smartphones and mobile apps are used by farmers in this sector, even though the quality of service is deficient. An opportunity to include topics on good agricultural practices into mobile apps to enhance the transfer and appropriation of these topics to the crop producers was identified.