What is agricultural extension?

• The link between research in agricultural practices and technologies and farmers.

• Goal: Help farmers improve their practice and adjust to changing conditions.

What is needed?

1. Up-to-date information about effective or progressive agricultural practices

2. Reliable and efficient systems for disseminating information to farmers

3. Methods to tailor information to location/context specific needs

4. Techniques for collecting feedback from farmers to guide further research

Mauritius and IMCD papers

• Investigated ways that IT can help effectively and efficiently disseminate information.

• Mauritius paper: Surveyed extension workers to understand the needs of the extension workers and how IT can help

• IMCD: Investigated 3 different information delivery methods to teach farmers in India about pest management

Questions/Issues

• Should we be constrained by the existing extension systems – i.e., involving extension workers?

• If so, how will the role of the extension worker change with the involvement of IT?

Delivery methods?

• Individual meetings seem to be most effective. Maybe because these can be done in the field? But they can be more time-consuming.

• Group meetings may be more economically feasible.

• What format should the information be in? Pictures, text, video?

Training vs. Easy to Use Interfaces

• Common problem in most of the papers we’ve discussed in this class is training.

• Ex. Only about 66% of extension workers in the developing world have basic computer skills.

• Mauritius paper suggests that GUI interfaces will not be difficult to use. Is this a simplifying assumption? Do we need to design interfaces specifically for the different needs (literacy, cultural, etc) of people in the developing world? What would this entail?

What about the farmers?

• Farmer participation and feedback:– Necessary to guide research– Important resource of locally specific

information that could be disseminated to others

– Improves motivation and interest in extension– Important for data collection purposes

• How to get farmers more involved?• Research driven vs. demand driven?

IMCD paper

• Goal: Teach Indian farmers about ‘Integerated Pest Management Practices of Coconut Eriophyid Mite’

• Three delivery methods studied:– IMCD– Video with interaction– Video without interaction

• IMCD most effective, but video with interaction not far behind.

Farmers using IMCD owned the computers. Does this matter? Would IMCD be as effective in a situation where you had a village center with a shared computer?

Information delivery methods

• IMCD

• TVI (video with interaction)

• Video (no interaction)

• Radio

• Extension officers

Is the choice of delivery methods specific to agriculture?

• We want to choose something that will be usable for disseminating information about health, etc as well.

Information delivery cross-cutting issues

• Production of content

• Availability of replay/receiving equipment

• Feedback channel

• Community Ownership

Production of content • Diversity of local languages and cultures• Who will create the materials?

Availability of replay/receiving equipment• Cost• Power consumption• In-home vs large group

Feedback Channel• Often requires a more expensive device• How important is it?

Community Ownership