A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration in Technology Management

Research report (M.B.A.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2013

Agricultural information through mass adopted mobile phone has potential to help the rural farmerswho lack proper market information. But there are number of intervening forces affecting success of such technologyadoption and usage. Thereforethe study attempts to identify those underlying issues investigating rural vegetables farmers of Bangladesh. It has been explored that though the mobile phone has brought about significant positive change in rural life, there are still many barriers of getting the real benefitsusing the mobile technology based extension services.The infrastructural barrier in the shape of inadequate roads and slow but costly transporthinder transportation of vegetables to high price market and increase risks of carriage. The social barrier in shape of lack of trust, inability to cooperate or unite together,make farmers weak in either end of value chain. Finally the service design andtechnological barrier arising from pushed IVR based inappropriate service towardsthe farmers, low detail of the service and ineffective publicity;make the information service unattractive to target audience. These barriers need to be effectively removedto make agricultural information service a success.