What is agricultural extension?

1. 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.

2. What is needed? • Up-to-date information about effective or progressive agricultural practices • Reliable and efficient systems for disseminating information to farmers • Methods to tailor information to location/context specific needs • Techniques for collecting feedback from farmers to guide further research

3. 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

4. Questions/Issues

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. 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?

9. 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.

10. 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?

11. Information delivery methods • IMCD • TVI (video with interaction) • Video (no interaction) • Radio • Extension officers

12. 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.

13. Information delivery cross-cutting issues • Production of content • Availability of replay/receiving equipment • Feedback channel • Community Ownership

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

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

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

17. Community Ownership