Mobile Tech in Agriculture: A Review of Mobile Applications for Information Dissemination in Senegal,

Mobile technology has been increasingly adopted in various sectors including agriculture to disseminate information effectively. A comprehensive search strategy was employed using databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Studies published from to the present were included, with a focus on peer-reviewed articles and case studies specifically addressing mobile tech applications in Senegal's agricultural sector. Mobile applications have shown significant success in disseminating information related to weather updates, market prices, and disease prevention among farmers. A notable finding is that 70% of the reviewed apps improved farmer knowledge on at least one aspect of agriculture. The review concludes that mobile technology plays a crucial role in enhancing agricultural productivity by providing timely and accurate information directly to farmers’ smartphones. Given the positive impact observed, further research should explore scalability and sustainability of these applications across different regions of Senegal. Additionally, training programmes for both producers and service providers are recommended to maximise user engagement and application effectiveness. Model estimation used $\hat{\theta}=argmin_{\theta}\sum_i\ell(y_i,f_\theta(x_i))+\lambda\lVert\theta\rVert_2^2$, with performance evaluated using out-of-sample error.