CHALLENGES AND CAPACITY GAPS IN SMALLHOLDER ACCESS TO DIGITAL EXTENSION AND ADVISORY SERVICES IN KENYA AND UGANDA

Highlights

● Seventy-eight percent of farmers accessed extension and advisory services from electronic sources dominated by radio.

● Low digital literacy and high cost of internet and digital devices were key barriers to digital extension and advisory services use.

● Farmers need information to make decisions, e.g., fertilizers, seeds or pesticides to use.

● Integrating digital and face-to-face methods can enhance inclusive scaling of extension activities.

Abstract

An assessment of the challenges and capacity gaps in smallholder access to digital extension and advisory services (EAS) was made by surveying 197 female and 239 male farmers in Kenya and Uganda. Non-digital extension approaches remain dominant but at least 78% of farmers accessed EAS from electronic sources dominated by radio. This is attributed to the fact that ownership of radios was more widespread than of other digital devices. Challenges that particularly limit the use of digital services included low digital literacy and prohibitive cost of internet and mobile devices. Female and elderly farmers were more likely to report these challenges than their counterparts. Logistic regression model results show that ownership of digital devices, participation in post-production activities, and access to extension were enablers of digital EAS use. Farmers mentioned gaps in obtaining information on crop pest/disease diagnosis and management, fertilizer application, pesticide safety and quality seed. Given the diversity in smallholder technological capabilities and information needs, the recommendations made include integration of digital communication within multimode advisory services that use different but linked communication channels, continued farmer digital innovation capacity enhancement, and participatory design approaches that deliver relevant and actionable information for inclusive scaling of extension activities.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

advisory service / agricultural extension / digital extension / digital literacy

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Acknowledgements

This paper is the deliverable of an LOA signed between CABI Africa and FAO to undertake a study on “Needs assessment on capacity development of Extension and Advisory Service through digital innovations in Sub-Saharan Africa”. The study was co-funded by FAO and CABI and the research was led by CABI. CABI is an international intergovernmental organization and we gratefully acknowledge the core financial support from our member countries (and lead agencies) including the UK (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), China (Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs), Australia (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research), Canada (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), the Netherlands (Directorate-General for International Cooperation) and Switzerland (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation). Authors acknowledge research contributions from the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries Uganda and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives Kenya, as well as the contributions of various stakeholders and farmers to the outcomes of this study.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Monica K. Kansiime, Idah Mugambi, Harrison Rware, Christine Alokit, Caroline Aliamo, Feng Zhang, Jakob Latzko, Puyun Yang, Daniel Karanja, and Dannie Romney declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any study with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2021. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)