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2. Agricultural Extension Services amidst COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria: Policy Options
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Olayiwola Issa, Fadlullah (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2022-02-24
- Published:
- International: AJOL
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 204 Document Number: D12515
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 26 (1)
- Notes:
- 9 pages., The paper explored the policy options targeted at preventing extreme hunger after surviving the COVID-19 pandemic. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 15 key informants across five purposively selected Local Government Areas in Kaduna and Ogun States for this study. Checklist (administered through recorded telephone calls) was used to elicit responses (qualitative data) on the impacts of COVID-19 on the food system. This paper concludes that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted on the food system thus challenging the AES to employ more innovative and pragmatic approaches to reach the farmers. Major impacts of COVID-19 on food system were disruptions in agricultural production, limitation of field visit by extension personnel and distortion of technology delivery system. Major recommendations include: in response to the stay-at-home order in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Agricultural extension services (AES) should explore virtual means to reach the clientele. To this end, farm operations and new techniques should be packaged into short clips and shared via various platforms. Also, legislative means to consider AEAS as essential services should be sought; and extensionists should be trained and provided with personal protection equipment (PPE) to enable them reach farmers. Such field officers should be insured and provided with adequate tangible mobility.
3. Blending digital and physical tools to deliver CSA information
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Ndirangu, Stella (author)
- Format:
- Opinion
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- 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."
4. Can Mobile Phones build social trust? Insights from rural Kenya
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Parlasca, Martin C. (author), Hermann, Daniel (author), and Mußhoff, Oliver (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-10-01
- Published:
- International: Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 201 Document Number: D11862
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Rural Studies
- Journal Title Details:
- 79
- Notes:
- 15 pages, Generalized trust, which refers to trust towards people that are not well known (Yamagishi and Yamagishi, 1994; Stolle, 2002; Uslaner, 2002; Freitag and Traunmüller, 2009), is needed for many situations of economic interaction such as daily market activities. Considering that trust acts as a lubricant for social interaction, a lack of generalized trust can severely restrict a persons reach of efficient economic exchange. Increases of generalized trust within a society thus have the potential to create large efficiency gains (Fafchamps and Minten, 2002; Fafchamps, 2006). Given the importance of trust for social interaction and various welfare dimensions, a growing body of economic, sociological, and psychological research has been devoted to examining the circumstances under which trust can thrive. A reoccurring notion in all three disciplines is that communication represents a key factor in the formation of trust (Lewicki et al., 2006; Glanville and Paxton, 2007). Ostrom et al. (1992), for example, find that communication and sanctioning in a common pool resource experiment lead to substantially more efficient outcomes. In a laboratory setting, personal communication has shown to enhance trust (Buchan et al., 2006), and is even more powerful in creating mutually benefitting exchanges than the possibility to engage in non-binding contracts (Ben-Ner and Putterman, 2009). In this paper, we analyze whether mobile phones which constitute a fundamental component of modern information and communications technologies (ICT) can help build social trust among pastoral communities in Northern Kenya.1 In most African countries, trust levels are remarkably low; out of all regions in the world, people living in sub-Sahara Africa exhibit the lowest levels of generalized trust (Mattes and Moreno, 2018). In the study region of Northern Kenya, it is particularly relevant to increase trust for several reasons. First, the relatively weak legal system jeopardizes contract enforcement, which means that any economic interaction requires substantial amounts of trust between the contract partners. This has caused a strong reliance on trust-based relationships in Northern Kenyas livestock sector (Mahmoud, 2008; Pavanello, 2010; Roba et al., 2018). Furthermore, low trust levels between ethnic tribes have also reinforced longstanding intertribal conflicts in the region, and impede solutions to share resources peacefully and effectively (Schilling et al., 2012). Lastly, the low population density and long physical distances between settlements in the region make communication over long distances difficult and therefore induce high monitoring costs. Potential benefits of enhancing trust are therefore particularly high in the context of Northern Kenya. To compensate for physical remoteness, rural communities have a high need for digital connectivity but have oftentimes suffered from poor connection and inclusion in existing networks in the past (Salemink et al., 2017). Over the last decade, however, mobile phones have become available to most pastoralists in Northern Kenya (Butt, 2015; Asaka and Smucker, 2016; Parlasca et al., 2020). A large and growing body of research has pointed out that mobile phones can help increase several paramount welfare dimensions of rural populations in sub-Saharan Africa, such as income and income equality, financial development, gender equality, or institutional quality (Aker and Mbiti, 2010; Asongu, 2015; Asongu and Nwachukwu, 2016; Rotondi et al., 2020). However, the research on the implications of mobile phones on social capital formation is much less extensive. To the best of our knowledge, the potential of mobile phones to affect trust is so far solely based on qualitative or anecdotal evidence (Molony, 2006, 2009; Overå, 2006) and lacks quantitative assessments. This paper aims to close this gap. In this study, we elicit trust levels with an incentivized experiment, namely the canonical trust game by Berg et al. (1995). Experimental sessions were conducted from July 2018 to August 2018 in 17 different villages in Turkana County, Northern Kenya, and included a total of 402 respondents. We differentiate with regard to the object of trust by measuring trust towards fellow villagers, trust towards people from a neighboring village, and trust towards city dwellers from the county capital. Past research in rural sub-Saharan Africa indicates that smallholder farmers exhibit less trust towards people from different villages (Etang, 2010; Etang et al., 2011) or people from the next larger city (Parlasca et al., 2019). The differentiation of the object of trust therefore allows investigating heterogeneous effects of mobile phone use on trust depending on the physical distance between trustor and trustee. This research adds add to the existing literature in several ways: to the extent of our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the direct link between mobile phone use and trust using quantitative household data from a low-income country. Thus far, no study has analyzed the role of geographical distance in the relationship between mobile phone use and trust. Lastly, this analysis contributes to the extremely sparse literature on trust in the context of pastoralist communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The remainder of the study is organized as follows. Section 2 lays out the conceptual framework that guides the analysis. The data are explained in section 3 and the empirical framework is presented in section 4. The results are discussed section 5, followed by concluding remarks in section 6.
5. Communication channels for exchanging agricultural information among Tanzanian farmers: A meta-analysis
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Pius Mtega, Wulystan (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2021-01-01
- Published:
- International: SAGE Journals
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 204 Document Number: D12503
- Journal Title:
- IFAL Journal
- Journal Title Details:
- 47 (2)
- Notes:
- 9 pages, This study investigates how communication channels to exchange agricultural information were chosen. Specifically, it identifies the communication channels used by farmers in Tanzania and determines the factors influencing the choice of communication channels for exchanging agricultural information. The study employs a meta-analysis review methodology in identifying, evaluating and interpreting studies relevant to the topic of interest. The results indicate that radio, mobile phones, television, fellow farmers, agricultural extension agents and newspapers were the commonly used communication channels for transferring agricultural information. Moreover, the channels’ influence, availability, affordability, communication network coverage, and the resources and facilities needed to use a particular communication channel were found to influence the choice of channels. It is concluded that understanding the audience, the characteristics surrounding messages and choosing appropriate communication channels are important for enhancing access to agricultural information. It is recommended that agricultural information providers should understand the factors surrounding communication channels before disseminating agricultural information
6. Determining the effects of the smartphone as a learning tool on the motivation of school-based agricultural education students in Louisiana
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Smith, H. Eric S (author), Blackburn, J. Joey (author), Stair, Kristin S. (author), and Burnett, Michael F. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-10
- Published:
- The American Association for Agricultural Education
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 109 Document Number: D10974
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural Education
- Journal Title Details:
- 60(3), 141-154
- Notes:
- 14 pages., via online journal., The smartphone is perhaps the most influential device in modern society. Research has indicated students perceived that using smartphones in the classroom aided learning. However, most American high schools ban students from using phones in the classroom. Previous research supports the idea that advanced smartphone applications in student- centered learning environments can improve achievement and motivation. Currently, there is little in the agricultural education literature pertaining to smartphone enhanced learning among secondary agriculture students. This study compared motivational differences between non-equivalent comparison groups. Secondary agricultural students from 13 schools across Louisiana completed the Course Interest Survey to measure motivation during a forestry unit. Data were analyzed using Hierarchical Linear Modeling. The analysis rendered no statistically significant differences between the groups in motivation. It was concluded that smartphones do not reduce motivation and should be considered in agricultural education classrooms where policy permits.
7. Exploring usage of smartphone among farmers of district bahawalnagar for agricultural extension information
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Riaz, Saqib (author), Iqbal, Ashraf (author), and Husain, Basharat (author)
- Format:
- journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2022-09-02
- Published:
- Pakistan: Directorate of Agricultural Information Lahore
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12678
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural Research
- Journal Title Details:
- Vol. 60, N. 3
- Notes:
- 5 pages, The current study also focuses and analyses the farmers’ inclination and their usage of smart phone for agricultural extension. This research is based on survey research method in which a closed-ended questionnaire was developed after the review of relevant literature. Furthermore, purposive and convenient sampling techniques were used to collect the data from the respondents who are farmers in Punjab. The study was conducted during the year 2020 in the selected district of Bahawalnagar. Overall results elaborate that age and education were among the factors that accounted for familiarity with apps. However, 42.9 percent of the respondents with the age 30 to 40 were somehow familiar with Agri-apps and 17.3 percent of respondents with twelve years of schooling were familiar with the apps usage. Likewise, 37 respondents in age bracket of 20 to 30 were of the view that usage of apps have resulted in increased agricultural production. It was concluded that age and education of the respondents had significant impact on the usage and familiarity of the apps available on smart phones.
8. Farmers’ intention to use text messaging for extension services in Trinidad
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Narine, Lendel K. (author), Harder, Amy (author), and Roberts, T. Grady (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-07-12
- Published:
- Trinidad: Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 109 Document Number: D10969
- Journal Title:
- The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 25(4) : 293-306
- Notes:
- 15 pages, via online journal, Purpose: The effectiveness of new extension approaches hinges on farmers’ willingness to adopt innovative ways to interact with extension. Therefore, this study explored farmers’ willingness to use mobile text messaging for two-way interactions with Ministry Extension officers. Design/Methodology/Approach: Guided by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), this study followed a correlational design and survey data were conveniently collected from 200 farmers of Trinidad. Findings: Findings showed most farmers of the sample knew how to send and receive text messages, and many owned Internet-enabled smartphones. In addition, most farmers were willing to communicate with extension officers through text messages. Practical Implications: Ministry Extension should revisit and revise their policies of communicating with farmers. Administrators should encourage extension officers to use SMS to respond to farmers’ requests and information needs. Theoretical Implications: While the UTAUT provided an appropriate framework for understanding farmers’ use of text messaging, researchers should tailor the moderator variables to the country’s context. Originality/Value: This study is the first to look at farmers’ willingness to use two-way information communication technologies in Trinidad. Results showed there is potential for Ministry Extension to use text messaging to communicate with farmers.
9. GeoFarmer: a monitoring and feedback system for agricultural development projects
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Eitzinger, Anton (author), Cock, James (author), Atzmanstorfer, Karl (author), Binder, Claudia R. (author), Läderach, Peter (author), Bonilla-Findji, Osana (author), Bartlin, Mona (author), Mwongera, Caroline (author), Zurita, Leo (author), and Jarvis, Andy (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-03
- Published:
- Germany: Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 7 Document Number: D10292
- Journal Title:
- Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
- Journal Title Details:
- 158 : 109-121
- Notes:
- 13 pages., Via online journal., Farmers can manage their crops and farms better if they can communicate their experiences, both positive and negative, with each other and with experts. Digital agriculture using internet communication technology (ICT) may facilitate the sharing of experiences between farmers themselves and with experts and others interested in agriculture. ICT approaches in agriculture are, however, still out of the reach of many farmers. The reasons are lack of connectivity, missing capacity building and poor usability of ICT applications. We decided to tackle this problem through cost-effective, easy to use ICT approaches, based on infrastructure and services currently available to small-scale producers in developing areas. Working through a participatory design approach, we developed and tested a novel technology. GeoFarmer provides near real-time, two-way data flows that support processes of co-innovation in agricultural development projects. It can be used as a cost-effective ICT-based platform to monitor agricultural production systems with interactive feedback between the users, within pre-defined geographical domains. We tested GeoFarmer in four geographic domains associated with ongoing agricultural development projects in East and West Africa and Latin America. We demonstrate that GeoFarmer is a cost-effective means of providing and sharing opportune indicators of on-farm performance. It is a potentially useful tool that farmers and agricultural practitioners can use to manage their crops and farms better, reduce risk, increase productivity and improve their livelihoods.
10. Harvesting shellfish? get the app
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Beck, Lena (author)
- Format:
- Online article
- Publication Date:
- 2023-09-28
- Published:
- USA: Modern Farmer
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 206 Document Number: D12971
- Notes:
- 10 pages, Toxins, pollution and invisible boundary lines are obstacles to harvesting bivalves such as clams and oysters. A new cohort of cellphone and web apps promises to help people farm and harvest shellfish more responsibly.
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