Digital Channels

Digital Channels

Have Impact

ICT has genuinely widened what farmers can better access: market prices, weather alerts, mobile payments, and farmer-to-farmer video now travel further and faster than extension ever could person-to-person. Its record is somewhat uneven, though, as many ICT efforts start with the shiny technology rather than with the question a farmer actually needs answered.

Overview Fact sheets

Ensure your ICT leads to change (pdf)
Digital Ag and Extension (pdf)

ICT options

Use the links below to learn about the ICT options and how to use them in extension. One way to think about the options:

AI in Ag → find the information to answer specific questions
Radio → reach many people at once
Mobile Devices → communicate directly with individual farmers
Social Media → connect people to each other
Video and TV → show what's hard to explain
Web/Internet → store knowledge so it can be found

Additional ICT reports and references

Learn from previous and existing ICT efforts.

If no tool already meets your needs, you may want to develop your own application. However, don't reinvent the wheel.

Steps

Clearly define your audience, the problems and needs – what are you trying to solve for whom?
Review existing tools and applications - Do a Google search and/or scan existing ICT repositories. Contact users with similar needs and learn what they are doing and the tools they are using.
Test and evaluate existing options to decide if the tool is for you. Pretest with your target audience.
If nothing exists, then consider building your own tool and/or contact people with similar needs and interests.