20 pages., via online journal., During the last 10 years, different initiatives have been implemented to provide mobile-based extension services for the agricultural sector in Egypt. The current study compared the quality of agricultural extension messages between public and private providers. A simple random sample of 120 farmers was selected representing 7% of the total farmers registered in the databases of Ministry of Agriculture (public services) and Shoura company (private services). Farmers assessed a sample of 10 messages delivered by both providers in terms of six indicators namely (1) access, (2) utilization, (3) timeliness, (4) trust, (5) satisfaction, and (6) sharing information with other farmers. The findings revealed the lack of access to messages by the farmers in the two services. However, more than 50% had utilized the majority of messages (in case of access). The study also showed significant differences between perception of farmers to quality attributes in public and private services (Access 6.77, 0.01; Utilization 8.44, 0.004; Timeliness 8.55, 0.002; Satisfaction 8.88, 0.001; information sharing 7.62, 0.009) except for trust (1.11, 0.4). Findings provide practical implications to support mobile-based extension services to enable sharing information and link farmers with other actors in the agricultural value chain.
27 pages., The study on the information-seeking behavior of the agricultural community was undertaken in the attabira area of bargarh district of Odisha with objectives to study the different areas in which they require information frequently and determine the sources through which they rely on. It was found that most of the people are dependent upon agriculture in the attabira area. They started working at the age of 18. Most of the farmers (85.6%) of farmers opted for pooja seeds for cultivation. The study shows 7.36% of the respondents are facing difficulties in irrigation facilities. About 78.9% of the people are talking about MSP (Minimum support price). About 7.3% of farmers gathered information from social media, TV, Call centers, etc. It is observed that the highest numbers of people are talking from a nationalized bank. The farmers were getting information from various sources like TV media, print media, etc. The library plays a crucial role in the dissemination of knowledge. The farmer knowledge center was established where they could get their query solved. The knowledge centers need to provide the right information at the right time in a personal way. The result reveals that a large number of people of the attabira district are influenced by socio-economic variables.
21 pages., The study has an aim to figure out the role of mobile communication in developing Knowledge base among rural women through knowledge sharing. Using a structured questionnaire quantitative data have been collected by survey method and qualitative data through FGDs. Data has been collected on the way of sharing knowledge, areas of expertise, sharing knowledge types, with whom sharing knowledge etc. Rural women are being interested in knowledge sharing through mobile phone because mobile phones are cheap, easier, and available medium for communication to them. Among the rural women who have completed at least secondary education, are sharing both their tacit (mostly) and explicit (moderately) knowledge. On the other hand women who are not literate they are sharing only their indigenous experiences. Both types of women have realized that they are positively being changed in their living attitude because of using mobile and now their knowledge base is somewhat better than ever before. The findings also revealed that they are getting benefit by enriching their knowledge base in different areas and its implementation in their livelihood. Moreover it is apparently clear that they will play important role in developing knowledge base society in rural area through sharing their knowledge in near future.
10 pages, The study focused on the knowledge of intergenerational farm transfer among cocoa farmers in southwestern Nigeria. A three-stage sampling technique was used to select 5% of the total 6,843 registered cocoa farmers with the Agricultural Development Project (ADP), making a total sample size of 342 cocoa farmers. Data were collected through interviewer-administered questionnaires and analysed using percentages, frequency distributions and chi-square tests. The results revealed that a majority of the respondents were male (77.0%) and had farm sizes of 5 ha and below (84.9%). The respondents had a mean age of 58 years and a mean household size of six persons. The results show that a majority (65.3%) of respondents had low knowledge about intergenerational farm transfer. 56.9% of the respondents had not discussed the issue of intergenerational farm transfer plans with anybody. The results also show that cocoa farmers’ succession plan status has a positive relationship with their knowledge of intergenerational farm transfer. The study concluded that the knowledge of cocoa farmers about the process of farm transfer is poor. The study recommends that cocoa farmers be trained in the process of intergenerational farm transfer to ensure family farm sustainability.
Abstract via online journal. 2 pages., Technological innovation is vital to economic growth and food security in sub-Saharan Africa where agricultural productivity has been stagnant for a long time. Extension services and learning from peer farmers are two common approaches to facilitate the diffusion of new technologies, but little is known about their relative effectiveness. Selection bias, whereby well-motivated training participants would perform better even without extension services, as well as knowledge spillovers, where non-participants can indirectly benefit from extension services, are among the major threats to causal inference. Using a unique sequential randomized experiment on agricultural training, this study attempts to meet the dual objectives of executing rigorous impact evaluation of extension services and subsequent spillovers on rice production in Cote d’Ivoire. Specifically, to reduce selection bias, we randomly assigned eligibility for training participation; and to satisfy the stable unit treatment value assumption, control-group farmers were initially restricted from exchanging information with treated-group farmers who had received rice management training. Once some positive impacts were confirmed, information exchange between the treated and control farmers was encouraged. We found that the initial performance gaps created by the randomized assignment disappeared over time, due presumably to social learning from peer farmers. A detailed analysis concerning the information network and peer effects provided suggestive evidence that there were information and technology spillovers from treated to control farmers after removing the information exchange restriction. Overall, our study demonstrates that information dissemination by farmers can be as effective in improving practices as the initial training provided by extension services.
35 pages, We use data from a randomised experiment in Uganda to examine effects of incentives
on the decision to adopt drought-tolerant maize varieties (DTMVs) and mechanisms
through which effects occur. We find that social recognition (SR) incentives to a
random subset of trained farmers – disseminating farmers (DFs) – increase knowledge
transmission from DFs to their co-villagers and change information networks of both
DFs and their neighbours. SR also increases DFs’ likelihood of adopting DTMVs.
However, the corresponding results for private material rewards are not conclusively
strong. We find no evidence that incentives for knowledge diffusion increase the
likelihood of co-villagers adopting DTMVs
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 195 Document Number: D07928
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John L. Woods Collection., Ring binder contains presentation visuals for a proposal and a progress report from Chemonics International, Inc., Washington, D.C., for a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Pages not numbered.
5 pages., Article # 1IAW6, vial online journal, Project Happy Apples began as an effort to assist backyard growers in managing codling moth in their fruit trees. We developed a process using emails and a web page to provide timely information related to the life cycle of codling moth and relevant integrated pest management (IPM) strategies. The content of our updates included pertinent photos, costs of tools, and suggested dates of action. Results from a survey of participants suggest that they were more confident, knowledgeable, and successful in using IPM strategies in their own backyards as a result of our project.
9 pages., via online journal., High-quality weather and climate services (WCS) can be critical for communicating knowledge about current and future weather and climate risks for adaptation and disaster risk management in the agricultural sector. This paper investigates the structure and performance of weather and climate services for farmers from a governance perspective. Empirically the paper compares the institutional design and operations of agro-meteorological services in Maharashtra/India and Norway through a ‘most different case study’ approach. The two cases were selected to represent great diversity in location, scale and institutional design. A governance approach based on semi-direct interviews and policy and institutional analysis was combined with local survey data of farmers’ perceptions and use of the services. Despite the fact that the context for the two agromet advisory services was very different from a climate-weather, eco-agriculture and socio-institutional angle, the analysis reveals great similarities in the services structures and critical governance challenges. In both countries the agromet services communicated knowledge that was largely perceived not to be well tailored to farmers’ needs for decisions in specific crops- and farm operations, spatially too coarse to address local issues, and, often unreliable or inaccurate in terms of the quality of data. Farmers did, however, respond positively to specific and locally relevant information on e.g., warnings about high rainfall and spread of pests. Observing such similarities across very diverse contexts enhances the generalization potential, precisely because they evolved under very different circumstances. Similar observations find support in the wider WCS literature. Based on the empirical findings, we propose a more deliberate approach to institutional design of WCS in order to enhance governance performance and co-creation of the services at local, district and national scales. It is suggested that greater participation of farmers and agricultural extension agents in the co-creation of these services is a necessary means of improving the services, supported by the WCS literature. However, we insist that greater participation is only likely to materialize if the deficiencies in institutional design and knowledge quality and relevance are addressed to greater extent than done today. The comparison between the two services shows that Norway can learn from India that a more ambitious scope and multiple forms of communication, including the use of social media/WhatsApp groups, can facilitate greater awareness and interest among farmers in multi-purpose agromet services for multi-way communication. India can learn from Norway that a more integrated and decentralized institutional design can strengthen the network attributes of the services, foster co-creation, and improve participation of both poor and large-scale farmers and extension agents.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 34 Document Number: D10673
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4 pages., via Scientific American website., Opinion piece by Esther Ngumbi, a distinguished postdoctoral researcher at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Entomology Department and a Food Security, on why she believes there needs to be a bigger emphasis on public communication by scientists.
