Kadiyala, Suneetha (author), Morgan, Emily H. (author), Cyriac, Shruthi (author), Margolies, Amy (author), Roopnaraine, Terry (author), and Department of Population Health, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH), London, United Kingdom
Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America
St. Johns Research Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
Independent consultant, Brasilia, DF, Brazil
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2016-10-13
Published:
India: Public Library of Science
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 164 Document Number: D08245
International: Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, ACP-EU, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 153 Document Number: D11614
Notes:
3 pages., Online from publisher., Author addresses "large gap between African extension services ... and the number of farmers being reached." ... "Africa's existing mobile network (currently the second biggest mobile market in the world) could be better utilised to bridge this gap and provide mobile-based agricultural information, advice and support to smallholder farmers."
14 pages., via online journal,, Effective agricultural extension is key to improving productivity, increasing farmers’ access to information, and promoting more diverse sets of crops and improved methods of cultivation. In India, however, the coverage of agricultural extension workers and the relevance of extension advice is poor. We investigate whether a women's self‐help group (SHG) platform could be an effective way of improving access to information, women's empowerment in agriculture, agricultural practices, and production diversity. We use cross‐sectional data on close to 1,000 women from five states in India and employ nearest‐neighbor matching models to match SHG and non‐SHG women along a range of observed characteristics. We find that participation in an SHG increases women's access to information and their participation in some agricultural decisions, but has limited impact on agricultural practices or outcomes, possibly due to financial constraints, social norms, and women's domestic responsibilities. SHGs need to go beyond provision of information to changing the dynamics around women's participation in agriculture to effectively translate knowledge into practice.
Online from https://doaj.org, Authors examined extension professionals, county agricultural commissioners, and members of farm bureaus and producer groups regarding their behavior and attitudes about use of information and communication technologies (ITCs). Results indicated that extension professionals experienced challenges in using ICTs more than the other sustainable agriculture stakeholders, "creating a technology gap between extension professionals and their clientele." Authors suggested use of an ICT community of practice and clear organizational guidelines for measuring and reporting performance related to ICT.
4 pages., Online from publisher., "For the first time, a landmark report on digitalisation for agriculture (D4Ag) in Africa compiles and highlights data on digital solutions that are enabling the transformation of African agriculture."
