Fostering technology stewardship approach to promote knowledge sharing among farming communities in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Agricultural knowledge plays a pivotal role in the process of transforming the livelihoods of farmers relied on subsistence agriculture. However, development of credible approaches to "share" the indigenous and scientific knowledge in possession of farmers in order to enhance their competitive edge in agriculture has become a challenge at present. This paper explores the applicability of theconcept of 'Technology Stewardship' in order to promote sustainable knowledge sharing amongst the agricultural farming communities in Sri Lanka. A community consultative process adopted with the officials ("Sponsors") and a series of structured questionnaire-based face-to-face interviews and keyinformant surveys carried out with a cross section of smallholder agriculture farmers (n=183) in the Batticaloa and Kurunegala districts facilitated gathering of baseline data/information, and in turn, to select and train six Technology Stewards (TEs). A number of field experiments ("Campaigns") were conducted then with smallholder farmers (n=260) "with" and "without" the assistance of those TEs during April 2014 to July 2015. The 'FrontlineSMS' (a low-cost, user-friendly, free and open source text messaging software) and Freedom Fone (low cost Interactive Voice Responses software) were applied to evaluate the effectiveness of knowledge sharing through the TEs work with these communities. It was found that the use of "Texting" and "Voice" facilities in day-today agricultural communication has been increased by 22% and 8%, respectively, when the process has been assisted by the TEs. This implies that TEs can effectively be utilized, with capacity development through intensive training modules, to reduce the transaction costs associated with sharing of information with farmers, starting from the lowest socioeconomic category in such communities.

Becoming a Platform in Europe: On the Governance of the Collaborative Economy

“…The second non-use category happened with the displacement, very familiar to rural HCI and technological stewardship (Jayathilake et al, 2017;McMillen et al, 2020). In our case, people decided to rely on others, namely sons/daughters or neighbours when it came about using the technology, especially buying online.…”

“…The introduction and appropriation of technology is particularly interesting to study for "low-tech" communities, in particular the way this appropriation could empower a community. For instance, Jayathilake et al (2017) have studied the introduction of technology in subsistence agriculture, outlining how some forms of technology deployment give more autonomy and tools and knowledge to make decisions to a part of the community -like the Sri Lanka's farming one -that is usually not taken into account.…”

Social Media Application in Agriculture Extension Programming for Small Scale Rural Farmers: Is Knowledge Impeding the Lack of Adoption?

“…For instance, extension officers using weblogs to disseminate information to stakeholders in the turf grass industry in the United States (Jones, Kaminski, Christians, & Hoffmann, 2011) (Martinson, Skelly, & Fisher, 2011). In Sri Lanka, extension agencies adopted ICT technology stewardship models using messenger platforms such as What's App to promote knowledge sharing amongst farming communities (Jayathilake, Jayasinghe-Mudalige, Perrera, Gow, & Waidyanatha, 2017).…”

“…Despite the successes and benefits outlined in the literature, there are many barriers affecting social media use in extension programming in many countries with large rural farming populations even with expanding technological and broadband infrastructure (Awan, Ahmed, & Hashim, 2019;Lwoga & Chigona, 2019;Saravanan, 2010). There are many studies that demonstrate the application of social media in extension programming (Barau & Afrad, 2018;Jayathilake et al, 2017;Thomas & Laseinde, 2015;Zipper, 2018) but very few studies that empirically establish the inhibiting factors that prevents the prevalent use of social media in extension programming especially amongst small scale rural farmers (Beza et al, 2018;Newbury, Humpreys, & Fuess, 2014). Some studies have attributed that the lack of ICT adoption such as the internet and social media in extension programming for small scale rural farming communities is due to a lack of education and training in ICTs and low computer literacy levels amongst farmers (e.g.…”