What is e-Agriculture Strategy?
An e-Agriculture strategy is using innovative digital technology solutions like precision agriculture, drones, big data, predictive analytics, and blockchain to improve social and economic outcomes for smallholder farmers.
e-Agriculture programs aim to increase food security by helping smallholder farmers improve modern ICT4Ag farming methods and access to markets. Agricultural ICT4D strategies encompass the full agricultural value chain and includes adjacent technologies like digital financial services and geographic information systems.
Communication in Agriculture
Smallholder farmers have limited knowledge, services, and technologies available to them. They typically need support to adopt modern farming methodologies.
Agriculture technology solutions focus on extension services for farmers to adopt new technologies and innovation. ICTs can amplify the efforts of the extension agents to help farmers plan what crops to grow, source inputs for crop cultivation, and selling their produce in local market.
Chatbots offer an exciting opportunity for governments to engage farmers on the social media platforms where farmers already congregate. For example:
- Facebook chatbots are a popular way to answer basic questions or help farmers apply for government support services.
- SMS text message chatbots can also help private sector companies develop new business leads and educate extension agents on their services.
ICT communication tools can play a crucial role in supporting farmers to access new inputs, credit, and markets with personalized and customized services.
Examples of e-Agriculture Programs
The potential to achieve high impact at the farm-level requires appropriate technology and adoption methodologies. International development organizations can use e-Agriculture communication programs like those below to support ICTforAg value chain ecosystems in developing countries.
Three years ago, I was asked to improve nutrition programming for a large USAID implementing partner. They were concerned about chronic malnutrition in target populations,...
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Published on: Jun 06 2024 by Guest Writer - Comments Off on 5 Stages of Digital Adoption by Smallholder Farmers in Southeast Asia
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Published on: May 03 2024 by Wayan Vota - Comments Off on 9 Ways Artificial Intelligence is Improving Nigeria’s Agriculture Outcomes with Smallholder Farmers
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Published on: Feb 28 2024 by Guest Writer - Comments Off on New USAID Toolkit on Inclusive AgriTech Digital Solution Design
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