21 pgs., CTs (Communications technologies) have revolutionized agricultural information services at every level in the agricultural sector, thus impacting rural development and catalysing poverty alleviation strategies. This has largely been the case with small-scale farmers in rural areas in developing countries where mobile technologies have penetrated more than most other ICT tools. However, in some of the farming environments, mobile phone use is largely driven by agricultural extension workers. This paper seeks to examine the way mobile phones are used for information access in situations where agricultural extension workers are a critical intermediary in the agricultural information services. Interviews were conducted with 10 randomly selected farmers who were part of the Dzindi irrigation scheme. The findings were that from the variety of information available to the farmers the most important source was the extension officer. The extension officer and the radio were indicated to be the most reliable independent sources of information. The other sources, such as the radio, family members, and friends, suppliers of chemicals, books and magazines, were only considered reliable if the information could be verified or vouched for by the extension officer. Increasing the information handling skills of extension officers, training of farmers to use smart features of their phones and promoting the usual face-to-face communication use of conventional methods, which is what usually gives rise to the mediation of mobile phones, were recommended.
20 pages., Via online from the University of Illinois website., Authors' review provided an overview of the data sources, computational methods, and applications of text data in the food industry. Applications of text data analysis were illustrated with respect to food safety and food fraud surveillance, dietary pattern characterization, consumer-opinion mining, new-product development, food knowledge discovery, food supply-chain management, and online food systems.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C25555
Notes:
Pages 165-177 in I. Guijt and M.K. Shaw (eds.), The myth of community: gender issues in participatory development. Intermediate Technology Publications, London. 288 pages.
Rudgard, Stephen (author), Janakiram, S. (author), Winder,Dylan (author), Demes, Michal (author), Young, John (author), and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.
Format:
Report
Publication Date:
2003-11
Published:
Armenia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 160 Document Number: C26289
Notes:
14 pages., Report of a field visit November 16-24, 2003, to Armenia, as part of: "A collaborative programme for knowledge systems in support of rural livelihoods."
