6 pages., via online journal., ICT has been initiated and implemented effectively by the
public private partnership, government, researchers and various
Institutions. Availability of wireless service, Internet and mobile
communication have forced ICT to find foothold in daily routine
of the Indian farmers. ICT has huge impact in agricultural
development but still in natal stage. Many farmers are not availing
the actual potential of ICT due to poverty, social constraint,
illiteracy, language barriers and unwillingness to adopt new
technology. Many Indian farmers have reported positive change
in income, quality of produce and timely access to the market
information by using latest mobile application. WhatsApp is the
most popular and easy to use Mobile Instant Messaging service
amongst the Indian farmer. It supports sharing of localized
information and utilizing these services as query redressal
public platform. This paper is an attempt to gather meaningful
agricultural data for analysis and filtering of relevant need based
information assessment. The main focus of the present work is to
develop an automatic information handling and redressal of the
need based agricultural information system using WhatsApp as
social media platform.
8 pages., via online journal., Social media provides huge opportunities and incentives that could ease promotion of agricultural extension, facilitate real-time service delivery and enable wider farmer coverage. Ineffective dissemination approaches, expanding farmer population, low staffing, and aging agricultural extension agents continue to negatively affect the provision of agricultural extension services in Kenya. Despite the social media potential in agricultural communication, lack of awareness and low usage in the rural areas of developing countries have been documented. This study sought to establish the level of social media familiarity among smallholder rural farmers with the aim of exploring the possibility of usage in agricultural extension. The study was undertaken in Thika Sub-County of Kiambu County on 140 farmers through a researcher administered semi-structured questionnaire. Probability-proportional-to-size sampling method was employed to derive the sample size from existing extension farmer groups. Simple random sampling technique was further used to identify the actual respondents from each group. A low level of social media familiarity was established among the farmers with education, age and gender having significant influence. The study recommends awareness creation initiatives to promote social media familiarity with a particular focus on women who form the bulk of the farmers but with the lowest level of social media knowledge.
11 pages., via online journal, This paper discusses the role of the community in agroforestry technology development and the extension approaches that have been used to spread sustainable agroforestry practices. It begins by stressing the importance of active community participation in the development of appropriate and sustainable agroforestry interventions for small holder farmers in the tropics. This is seen as essential because farmers understand their complex biophysical, socio-cultural and economic environment better than anyone else. It is therefore imperative that the community be involved in the whole process of technology development right frøm problem identification to technology transfer. Similarly, problem identification and prioritisation by, consensus of the community is seenas crucial, as is the role of indigenous knowledge in designing technologies that are cost effective, relevant and easily adoptable. Equally important is that interventions be tried out with a few farmers before involving the whole community and that farmers develop a monitoring system within their means that is effective in assessing the performance of these technologies. The paper concludes that a community-based extension system should be institutionalised in order to ensure sustainability in the transfer of the technologies. The system should be able to lead to the building of the capacity of the local farming community to continue utilising and transferring these technologies to solve their problems and ultimately creating sustainable fanning systems.
11 pages., via online journal., Youth cherish technology, efficiency and innovations and accommodate entrepreneurial risks. The objectives of this study were to show the beneficial use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in agriculture among the youth in Kenya, assessed ICT application and commonly used tools, experienced challenges, impacts and suggested future ICT use. Beneficial ICT applications were exemplified by ‘Mkulima Young Champions’ who led digital initiatives, drew youth into farming, helped them learn among themselves, and traded and overcame agricultural challenges. Using radio, short message services (SMS) and social media, they discussed agricultural topics and shared successes. Mkulima Young's Facebook was vibrant. The youth posted photographs and videos, asked questions, discussed issues and interacted. Most of the youth obtained information from the internet, hence the internet was the best platform to market and promote agriculture to the youth. They used internet and social media to obtain production technologies, market information and for information sharing. Most commonly used tools were MS Office and spreadsheets for record keeping. Voice messages and SMS assisted timely accessing of market prices, reaching clients, sharing production information and money transactions. The ICT content should be relevant to targeted youth, valuable, localized and dependable. The ICT-savvy youth operated intensive, efficient and profitable farms, producing diverse and branded products for niche markets. The youth transformed the community use and access to ICTs and influenced community economic status. Smart phone technology will revolutionize access to and use of ICTs. YouTube, Twitter and WhatsApp should be expanded and widely popularized among the youth.
14 pages., via online journal., The purpose of the study was to investigate the information needs and barriers of rural smallholder farmers in Mzimba North in Malawi. A mixed methods approach was adopted for the study and the Wilson’s Model of Information Behaviour (1996) guided the study. A questionnaire and focus group discussion guide were used to collect data from 202 rural smallholder farmers. The study found that the major information need of rural smallholder farmers was crop husbandry as revealed by the majority of rural smallholder farmers 149 (77.6). The study found that majority of rural smallholder farmers 180 (94.8%) were aware of information sources. The study also found that the predominant information sources consulted by rural smallholder farmers were personal experiences as indicated by the majority of rural smallholder farmers 185 (96%). The major challenge faced by rural smallholder farmers was lack of mobility as revealed by the majority of rural smallholder farmers 147 (76.6). The study recommends that the Department of Agriculture Extension Services (DAES) should empower the social structures such as families in rural settings with agricultural information.
10 pages., via online journal., A baseline survey of ownership or access to radio and mobile phone was conducted in seven districts of eastern Uganda in 2015. The purpose of this survey was to assess the role of radio and modern communication technologies to promote push-pull technology as an integrated management approach to control striga and stemborer and improve soil fertility. The selected districts are where icipe is currently disseminating the technology. The survey was conducted from seven districts where 30 respondents from each were identified for the study. Semi structured questionnaires were administered where data including household demography, ownership and or access to radio and mobile phone was collected. The data were analyzed using STATA (version 13). The findings show that there are over eight (Ateso, Luganda, Samia, Japadhola, Lugisu, Lusoga, Kiswahili, and English) languages spoken in the surveyed districts. Most of the respondents speak more than one language. Overall, ownership of radio and mobile phone was at 82% and 87% respectively with slight differences between men and women. Moreover, those who do not own radio and mobile phones also stated that they have access to one. On average, 83% of the respondents (174 out of 210) said that they do receive text messages, whereas, only 53% of the respondents indicated that they also send text messages. A great proportion of the respondents (91%, 80%, and 77%) received agricultural, weather and market information through the radio. Over 65% of the respondents reported benefiting from the agricultural programs broadcasted via radio. 45 and 50% stated that they benefitted from market and weather information. However, the level of benefit rendered from mobile phones with regard to agricultural, market and weather information was negligible. The study showed that radio and mobile phones are best suited mass communication media to transfer technologies such as push-pull to address cross-cutting problems such as striga, cereal stem borer and low soil fertility. It will strengthen the agricultural extension service delivery at large.
