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2. 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."
3. Constraints to the utilisation of conservation agriculture in Africa as perceived by agricultural extension service providers
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Brown, Brendan (author), Nuberg, Ian (author), Llewellyn, Rick (author), and School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide CSIRO Agriculture
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10460
- Journal Title:
- Land Use Policy
- Journal Title Details:
- 73: 331-340
- Notes:
- 10 pages., Via online journal., Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a knowledge-intensive set of practices which requires substantial access to functional agricultural extension services to enable utilisation. Despite this importance, the perspectives of those providing extension services to smallholder farmers have not been fully investigated. To address this, we qualitatively explore the perspectives of agricultural extension providers across six African countries to understand why uptake of CA has been limited, as well as the institutional changes that may be required to facilitate greater utilisation. Across the diversity of geographical, political and institutional contexts between countries, we find multiple commonalities in the constrained utilisation of CA by smallholder farmers, highlighting the difficulties non-mechanised subsistence farmers face in transitioning to market-oriented farming systems such as CA. The primary constraint relates to the economic viability of market-oriented farming where farmers remain in low input and low output systems with limited exit points. The assumed exit point used by CA programs appears to have led to a culture of financial expectancy and reflects a continuation of top-down extension approaches with inadequate modification of CA to the contextual realities of subsistence farmers. If African agricultural systems are to be sustainably intensified, we find a need for greater flexibility within extension systems in the pursuit of sustainable intensification. If extension systems are to persist with CA, it will need to be promoted through more transitional pathways that disaggregate the CA package, and with that there is a need for the provision of a mandate to, and necessary funding for, more participatory extension services.
4. Decoding agricultural digitalisation in Africa
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Boloh, Yanne (author) and Cartmell-Thorp, Susanna (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- 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: D11615
- Journal Title:
- Spore
- Journal Title Details:
- 194 : 4-7
- Notes:
- 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."
5. Exploring Information Seeking Behavior of Farmers’ in Information Related to Climate Change Adaptation Through ICT (CHAI)
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Tumbo, Siza (author), Mwalukasa, Nicholaus (author), Fue, Kadeghe G. (author), and Mlozi, Malongo R. S. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-07-01
- Published:
- International: Athabasca University Press
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D12413
- Journal Title:
- International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning
- Journal Title Details:
- Issue 19, Vol. 3
- Notes:
- 22 pages., In Tanzania, agriculture sector is known for employing more than 70% of the total population. Agriculture sector faces many challenges including climate change. Climate change causes low productivity in agriculture; low productivity is caused due to poor implementation of agricultural policies and strategies. This poor implementation of policies has also caused many farmers to be not competent in climate change adaptation. Over the years, provisions of agricultural advice and extension were provided by various approaches, including training and visit extension, participatory approaches, and farmers’ field schools. However, provision of agricultural advisory and extension service is inefficient. Also, in most cases the usage of most agricultural innovations and technologies developed is limited. A literature review indicates that the main reasons given by Tanzanian farmers for not using improved technology are not lack of knowledge or skill, but rather that the technologies do not contribute towards improvements (e.g., the technologies are not profitable or they imply to high risk). Thus, agricultural extension service needs to be geared towards teaching farmers how to develop innovative and cost effective technologies that are contextualized. Limited numbers of agricultural extension staff and less interactivity of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as radio and television, have been mentioned to be among the factors limiting the provision of agricultural advisory and extension services to the majority of farmers in Tanzania. The advancements in ICTs have brought new opportunities for enhancing access to agricultural advisory and extension service for climate change adaptation. In Tanzania, farmers and other actors access agricultural information from various sources such as agricultural extension workers and use of various databases from Internet Services Providers. Also there are different web – and mobile – based farmers’ advisory information systems to support conventional agricultural extension service. These systems are producing bulk amounts of data which makes it difficult for different stakeholders to make an informed decision after data analysis. This calls for the need to develop a tool for data visualization in order to understand hidden patterns from massive data. In this study, a semi-automated text classification was developed to determine the frequently asked keywords from a web and mobile based farmers’ advisory system called UshauriKilimo after being in use for more than 2 years by more than 700 farmers.
6. Farming systems research and extension: an approach to solving food problems in Africa
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Fresco, Louise O. (author) and Poats, Susan V. (author)
- Format:
- Book chapter
- Publication Date:
- 1986
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 94 Document Number: C07156
- Notes:
- cited reference, In: A. Hansen and D.E. McMillan (eds), Food in sub-Saharan Africa. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rinner Publishers, 1986. p. 305-331
7. Financing of agricultural research and extension for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Beynon, Jonathon (author / Oxford Policy Management)
- Format:
- journal
- Publication Date:
- 1996-11
- Published:
- Africa: Overseas Development Institute, Overseas Development Administration
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 132 Document Number: C19964
- Journal Title:
- Natural Resource Perspective
- Journal Title Details:
- 15
- Notes:
- Burton Swanson Collection, 4 pages
8. Peasant farmer organization in farmer-first agricultural development in West Africa : new opportunities and continuing constraints
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Gubbels, P. (author)
- Format:
- Paper
- Publication Date:
- 1993-07
- Published:
- Africa: Agricultural Administration (Research and Extension) Network, Agricultural Administration Unit, Overseas Development Institute
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 135 Document Number: C20612
- Notes:
- Burton Swanson Collection, 32 pages, Network Paper 40, ISSN 0952-2468
9. Review of agricultural extension and advisory services in sub-saharan African countries. progress with private sector involvement
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Nwafor, Christopher Ugochukwu (author), Ogundeji, Abiodun Akintunde (author), and Nwafor, Ifeoma Chinyelu (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2021-10-02
- Published:
- Poland: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Przyrodniczego w Poznaniu
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12675
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development
- Journal Title Details:
- Vol. 61, N. 3
- Notes:
- 12 pages, Agricultural extension and advisory services in Africa have significant impact on food security as well as economic and social development. Recent moves towards a pluralistic delivery system, facilitated by the emergence of private-sector led initiatives in many countries are the subject of policy and academic discourse. This study used an adapted, fit-for-purpose market systems development framework to review available research in extension and advisory services in selected sub-Sahara Africa countries. Using a literature survey methodology, we report evidence of multiple actors in extension delivery, findings that point towards evolution towards mixed delivery as well as objectives. While there are significant uptake of cost-recovery approaches among commercially-oriented farmers, many smallholder farmers still depended on donor-funded services. Our review adds to existing knowledge through incorporating a market systems development framework, which extends the often-used willingness to pay approach, and highlights the need for merger of both public and private-sector objectives to achieve developmental outcomes.
10. Sasakawa Global 2000 extension efforts in Africa
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Plucknett, Donald L. (author)
- Format:
- Workshop report
- Publication Date:
- 2002-11-12
- Published:
- Africa: The World Bank, United States Agency for International Development
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 137 Document Number: C20902
- Notes:
- Burton Swanson Collection, 11 pages, from "Victoria University", November 12-14, 2002, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C.