Guide on Digital Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services: Use of Smartphone Applications by Smallholder Farmers

By Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

However, this potential is often unfully harnessed and the benefits of digital AEAS unequally distributed due to an evident, widening digital divide between rural and urban areas, gender, and different social groups both within and among regions. Due to low-level e-literacy and digital skills, particularly smallholder farmers in rural areas in developing countries have limited access to and utilization of digital AEAS. Considering the above-mentioned benefits of digital AEAS, their poor uptake by smallholder farmers, and the importance of digital empowerment of smallholder farmers in particular, this guide, targeting smallholder farmers in need of digital AEAS as its principal users, provides a set of tools to enhance their digital skills in terms of basic knowledge and skills on using digital tools, methods of access to digital AEAS, methods of access to e-commerce, and capacity building.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Release date: Nov 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9789251383063

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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FAO. 2023. Guide on digital agricultural extension and advisory services – Use of smartphone applications by smallholder farmers. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc4022en

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ISBN 978-92-5-138306-3

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Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations and acronym

1. Introduction

2. Goals and scope of application

2.1 Goals

2.2 Scope of application

3. Proposed training curriculum

3.1 Getting started

3.1.1  How can I download and install applications for accessing agricultural extension services?

3.1.2  How can I register an account for a WhatsApp application?

3.1.3  How can I create a WhatsApp group?

3.1.4  What can I do in a WhatsApp group?

3.1.5  How can I protect myself from online frauds and scams?

3.2 Access to digital extension and advisory services

3.2.1  How can I access the information on high-quality agricultural inputs such as seed, crop varieties, fertilizers and pesticides on the Internet by using a smartphone?

3.2.2  How can I search for farming and animal husbandry techniques on the Internet by using a smartphone?

3.2.3  How can I solve my cultivation technical problems online?

3.2.4  How can I find relevant information about planting and animal husbandry trends, and market information, using a smartphone?

3.2.5  How can I gain techniques on post-harvest, value addition and packaging online?

3.2.6  How can I interact with EAS agents via smartphone?

3.3 Access to e-commence

3.3.1  How can I register an account on e-commerce platforms?

3.3.2  How do I choose logistics partners