The Case for a Two-Step Approach to Agricultural Campaign Design

Bringing sustainable agricultural intensification practices and technologies to scale through campaign-based extension approaches: lessons from Africa Soil Health Consortium

“…Men were more likely to listen to radio compared to women, while women tended to rely more on communitybased information sources such as demonstration plots, radio listening groups, and village video screenings. These differences in preference of information sources have been reported elsewhere (Ihm et al, 2015;Irungu et al, 2015), though not analogous due to impacts of other socio-cultural factors like education, workload and social networks (Ragasa et al, 2021;Tata & McNamara, 2018) on the use of technology and extension service delivery. To enhance learning and participation in extension programme for all segments of society, gender responsive extension approaches should be adopted.…”

“…Due to limited success in terms of the numbers of farmers reached and technologies transferred and adopted through traditional agricultural extension approaches (Hellin & Dixon, 2008), campaign-based extension approaches are gaining prominence as one of the primary means to accelerate awareness about-and adoption of recommended technologies through targeted information (Ihm et al, 2015), as well as achieving quick, large-scale change in behaviour and practices (Boa et al, 2016). Campaigns harness the ubiquity of mass media and information and communications technologies (ICTs) in the developing world and have the potential to substantially amplify reach even to remote areas that are traditionally under-served by mainstream extension services (Aker, 2011;Saravanan et al, 2015).…”

“…In agriculture, the use of campaign-based approaches is still limited. Existing literature tends to focus on the role of ICTs in agricultural information access for example (Galadima, 2014;Hassan et al, 2010;Ihm et al, 2015;Kansiime et al, 2019;Ortiz-Crespo et al, 2020). These studies provide useful insights on the use of digital platforms in agricultural extension, however, a dearth of knowledge remains on how campaigns work in agriculture and their potential contribution to enhancing farmer knowledge and bringing about behaviour change.…”