Addressing the Challenges of Extension and Advisory Services in Uganda: The Grameen Foundation’s Community Knowledge Worker Program

McCole, Daniel; Culbertson, Michael; Suvedi, Murari; McNamara, Paul E.

doi:10.5191/jiaee.2014.20101

Cited by 19 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…(Acilar, 2011;Amadu, McNamara, Davis, & Rodriguez, l., 2015;Anjum, 2015;David-West, 2010;Ifeoma & Mthitwa, 2015;Lamptey, Shambo, & Hassan, 2016;McCole, Culberttson, Suvedi, & McNamara, 2014;OECD, 2001;Schalkwyk, Young, & Verhulst, 2017).…”

Section: Use Of Foreign Language and Inappropriate Cultural Context Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Anjum, 2015;Brugger, 2011;Caine, Dorward, Clarkson, Evans, & Canales, 2015;David-West, 2010;Fadairo, Olutegbe, & Tijani, 2015;GF, 2014;Ifeoma & Mthitwa, 2015;Jato & Terna, 2015;Liu & Palmisano, 2012;McCole, Culberttson, Suvedi, & McNamara, 2014;Motilewa, Worlu, Adepoju, & Fayomi, 2015;Nwaobiala & Ubor, 2016;Schalkwyk, Young, & Verhulst, 2017;Tisselli, 2015).…”

Section: Use Of Foreign Language and Inappropriate Cultural Context Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Amadu, McNamara, Davis, & Rodriguez, l., 2015;Andrason & Schalwyk, 2016;Anjum, 2015;Asenso-Okyere & Mekonnen, 2012;Darko & Koranteng, 2015;Ifeoma & Mthitwa, 2015;McCole, Culberttson, Suvedi, & McNamara, 2014).…”

Section: Use Of Foreign Language and Inappropriate Cultural Context Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The reviewed research literature explicitly highlights the illiteracy of SSFs (Anjum, 2015;McCole et al, 2014;Nwalieji, 2015), low education and training as new technology emerges (Anjum, 2015;Schalkwyk et al, 2017), the failure of SSFs to follow directives from experts (Ifeoma & Mthitwa, 2015), inadequate or short training duration (Amadu et al, 2015;Tisselli, 2015), and the existing digital divide (individuals, households, business, and geographical areas) at different socio-economic levels about opportunities to access ICT. This calls for enhanced education and training on ICT-related tools including mobile phones to add skills and knowledge to SSFs that will ultimately improve the use of technology to support the farming decision-making process and might increase the farm yield.…”

Section: Theftmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unfortunately, only a few studies have explored mobile phone technology use in crop farming projects and identified challenges facing SSFs. For example, most of the studies have focused on the impact of application of mobile phones (Balraj & Pavalam, 2012;McCole, Culberttson, Suvedi, & McNamara, 2014), the effectiveness of mobile phone technology use (Nwaobiala & Ubor, 2016), the assessment of farmers' attitudes (Fadairo, Olutegbe, & Tijani, 2015), farmers' empowerment (Saravanan & Bhattacharjee, 2013), comparative factors involved in mobile phone use (Arinloye, Linnemann, Hagelaar, Coulibaly, & Omta, 2015), and potentiality of the role of mobile phone technology in agriculture (Adebo, 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Challenges facing sub‐Saharan small‐scale farmers in accessing farming information through mobile phones: A systematic literature review

Misaki

Apiola

Gaiani

et al. 2018

E J Info Sys Dev Countries

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The use of mobile phone technology has increasingly been advocated to assist smallscale farmers. Accordingly, numerous studies have been conducted on the impact, effectiveness, user's attitude, assessment, empowerment, and the potential use of mobile phone technology in agriculture. This study explores the challenges that small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa face when using a mobile phone technology in crop farming projects and proposes areas for future improvement. The study used a systematic literature search conducted by authors at 3 levels, in which 134 studies initially identified were then narrowed to 11. These 11 studies generated 7 projects that use specialized applications in a farming value chain. The findings from the study indicate some of the challenges faced by small-scale farmers, including the lack of their involvement in the initial phase of the invention process. Other obstacles include low trust and transparency, inappropriate use of foreign language (English) in a local cultural context, bureaucracy, and theft of mobile phones. On the basis of these results, the authors conclude that there are generalized factors for understanding deficiencies experienced by small-scale farmers, which ought to be understood by all crop farming stakeholders. These factors can be used by software engineers to design future technologies beneficial to small-scale farmers. KEYWORDSchallenges, farming information, mobile phone, small-scale farmers, sub-Saharan Africa | INTRODUCTIONSeveral studies postulate that mobile phone technology use is important to farmers and supports crop production (Baumüller, 2013;CIARD, 2012;De Silva & Ratnadiwakara, 2008;Duncombe, 2016;Furuholt & Matotay, 2011;Gayi & Tsowou, 2016;Wellard, Rafanomezana, Nyirenda, Okotel, & Subbey, 2013). The use of mobile phone technology in the crop farming value chain enables small-scale farmers (SSFs) to access farming information that supports optimal decision-making and increases crop productivity. Consequently, it is envisaged that SSFs using mobile phone technology may have the potential to improve food security and reduce poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Mungera and Karfakis (2013) describe SSFs as people who own between 0.1 and 10 hectares of land. Small-scale farmers commonly have access to less than 2 hectares of land (NEPAD, 2013;Vanlauwe et al., 2014). This study reiterates that SSFs are characterized by limited access to land, low skills, family labour, and subsistence farming practices based on rudimentary inputs and are rainfall dependent with low bargaining power.In Tanzania and Zambia, 75% of the total population derives their livelihoods from agriculture (Kalinda, Filson, & Shute, 2010;Misaki, Apiola, & Gaiani, 2016). Hence, an innovation that increases agricultural productivity cannot be ignored as it improves the livelihood of most farmers. Studies that address challenges facing SSFs may be pivotal in reversing a decline in food production and deserve attention (Kalinda et al., 2010). One of the many difficulties SS...

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Section: Use Of Foreign Language and Inappropriate Cultural Context Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Use Of Foreign Language and Inappropriate Cultural Context Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Use Of Foreign Language and Inappropriate Cultural Context Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theftmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Challenges facing sub‐Saharan small‐scale farmers in accessing farming information through mobile phones: A systematic literature review

Misaki

Apiola

Gaiani

et al. 2018

E J Info Sys Dev Countries

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

A Local Perspective: Working an Agricultural Information Service into a Rural Community

Christensen¹,

Ahsan²,

Rashid³

et al. 2019

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology

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Accounting for the ways in which ICT initiatives are worked into local communities is part of rendering "the local perspectives" within ICT4D. This paper is part of that. Based on in-depth fieldwork, we investigate the integration of an agricultural information service into a rural community in Bangladesh. We find that it takes work beyond the initial design and cursory introduction of the service to make the service work in a low-income rural community: it takes the strength of the farmers self-help groups to circulate the messages by word-ofmouth, it takes posters placed at key junctions according to a sociogeographic understanding of the village manifest in a map, and it (ideally) involves the support of the elite of the community via the broadcast of messages at places of high symbolic value. It takes all this in addition to a well-made information service delivering relevant and timely messages on for example agricultural matters. Hence, reducing the issue to one of technical delivery mechanism does not tell the full story.

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Tapping the full potential of the digital revolution for agricultural extension: an emerging innovation agenda

Steinke

Etten

Müller³

et al. 2020

International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability

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Agricultural extension in the Global South can benefit greatly from the use of modern information and communication technologies (ICT). Yet, despite two decades of promising experiences, this potential is not fully realized. Here, we review the relevant research literature to inform future investments into agricultural information services that harness the full potential of digital media. We describe a recently emerging innovation agenda that is, in part, a response to the eventual failure of many new agro-advisory initiatives. One important cause of failure has been a focus on pushing certain technologies, rather than responding to the particular communication challenges of potential users. To avoid such bias in designing new services, the new innovation agenda rests on two major foundations: strong user-centredness and problem-orientation. In our review, we first describe how user-centred design methods help in specifying both problems and (digital) solutions in agricultural extension. To inform responses to the communication challenges defined by that analysis, we then describe eight emerging aspects of using ICT for development, and how they can address common deficiencies of agricultural extension. Practical examples from the literature highlight the possibilities and limitations of these innovation directions. Beyond digital design, however, technological innovation requires enabling institutions.

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Addressing the Challenges of Extension and Advisory Services in Uganda: The Grameen Foundation’s Community Knowledge Worker Program

Cited by 19 publications

References 6 publications

Challenges facing sub‐Saharan small‐scale farmers in accessing farming information through mobile phones: A systematic literature review

Challenges facing sub‐Saharan small‐scale farmers in accessing farming information through mobile phones: A systematic literature review

A Local Perspective: Working an Agricultural Information Service into a Rural Community

Tapping the full potential of the digital revolution for agricultural extension: an emerging innovation agenda

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