GeoFarmer: A monitoring and feedback system for agricultural development projects

Eitzinger, Anton; Cock, James H.; Atzmanstorfer, Karl; Binder, Claudia R.; Läderach, Peter; Bonilla‐Findji, Osana; Bartling, Mona; Mwongera, Caroline; Zurita, Leo; Jarvis, Andy

doi:10.1016/j.compag.2019.01.049

Cited by 84 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Evaluating the impacts of Ushauri-style information services will require determining to what extent farmers implement the received advice on their farms. Information on implemented practices can be collected from farmers directly through the IVR interface (Eitzinger et al, 2019).…”

Section: Remaining Research Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

User-centred design of a digital advisory service: enhancing public agricultural extension for sustainable intensification in Tanzania

Ortiz-Crespo¹,

Steinke²,

Quirós³

et al. 2020

International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability

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Sustainable intensification (SI) is promoted as a rural development paradigm for sub-Saharan Africa. Achieving SI requires smallholder farmers to have access to information that is context-specific, increases their decision-making capacities, and adapts to changing environments. Current extension services often struggle to address these needs. New mobile phone-based services can help. In order to enhance the public extension service in Tanzania, we created a digital service that addresses smallholder farmers' different information needs for implementing SI. Using a co-design methodology-User-Centered Designwe elicited feedback from farmers and extension agents in Tanzania to create a new digital information service, called Ushauri. This automated hotline gives farmers access to a set of prerecorded messages. Additionally, farmers can ask questions in a mailbox. Extension agents then listen to these questions through an online platform, where they record and send replies via automated push-calls. A test with 97 farmers in Tanzania showed that farmers actively engaged with the service to access agricultural advice. Extension agents were able to answer questions with reduced workload compared to conventional communication channels. This study illustrates how User-Centered Design can be used to develop information services for complex and resource-restricted smallholder farming contexts.

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Section: Remaining Research Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

User-centred design of a digital advisory service: enhancing public agricultural extension for sustainable intensification in Tanzania

Ortiz-Crespo¹,

Steinke²,

Quirós³

et al. 2020

International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability

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“…Demonstration farms serve as a tool to overcome the gap between the research and practical experience of farmers [18,19]. They play an important role in dissemination of general knowledge but very often in an implementation of important state and public programs [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Approach to Sustainability in Rural Areas Comprising Agriculture Practices–Analysis of Demonstration Farms in the Czech Republic

et al. 2019

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The research was aimed at an overview and analysis of the demonstration activities in the Czech Republic dealing with the transfer of innovations for agricultural practice. Several methods were used to compile the national inventory, in particular the questionnaire survey method. The Czech part of the research was based on 30 questionnaires conducted among both farmers and agricultural organizations engaged in demonstration activities. The questions were focused on a specialization in agriculture, type of the management, connections with networks and their size, types of demonstration activities according to the types of farms and non-productive activities. The most common topics and purposes for demonstration in the Czech Republic are recorded for the category arable land with combined crops. Highly linked to sustainability are activities such as conservation agriculture on arable land with combined crops, root crops and fodders mainly due to a reduction of soil erosion within crop production and animal health management and welfare for dairy within livestock production. The Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a subsidy program to help farmers in the form of illustrative practical demonstrations of comprehensive sustainable farming practices. The main added values for the end-users, if the generated knowledge is implemented, are to strengthen the knowledge transfer system in agriculture, focusing on practical demonstrations and presentation of sustainable farming systems and soil protection in practice. However, the demonstration activities support mostly technological development and some individual ecological measures whereas the sustainability of agriculture as the complex process unifying the crop and animal production is not in the foreground.

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“…Although agriculture is playing a remarkable role in the economy its production is still below potential and much lower than many other countries of the world Actual yield is much below its real potential [13]. This is a clear indication that farmers are still relying on traditional farming techniques and modern day technologies are not being utilized in agriculture [14].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Modern technologies have opened many ways and opportunities to get appropriate weather forecast and market information to make good decision but in developing countries information dissemination systems are weak and farmers are limited to traditional ways like fellow farmers, TV, Radio and electronic media which cannot fulfill their desired requirement, therefore, farmers need an easily accessible and low-cost information system and support to improve their productivity and probability [13]. With the passage of time paradigm of the agriculture is changing, because due to advancement in technology decision-making techniques have been changed and through use of latest technology timely and accurate been made and farmers efficiency has improved [14]. Smart farming through the use of ICT is being promoted nationally and internationally to encourage farmers community [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Information and Communication Technology ICT in Agriculture to Uplift Small Scale Farmers in Rural Pakistan

Awan¹

2019

AJETM

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The research was conducted to determine the agricultural information needs of the rural farmers and to provide a solution to access this information in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Pakistan. The research was conducted in Ten (10) Villages of different districts of KPK and a number of 460 respondents were selected for study, the study was conducted through a survey method, Face to Face interviews, focus group discussion and farmer meetings, data was collected and analyzed through descriptive statistics, percentage, frequency tables. The results indicated that most of the respondents (34.78%) fall in age group between 41-50 years, it is also found that the first preferred source of information of the farmers is fellow farmers (37.39%) following by Radio (29.13%), Major barriers to access modern information systems is high illiteracy (39.43%) and non-availability of local information centers (36.08%). During the study, a large of the number of farmers acknowledged that they are not familiar with modern practices of agriculture because they are not facilitated with new technologies to access agricultural information; as a result, they are not using such techniques and relying on traditional ways. The research study also identified that due to the highly localized nature of information and several barriers this is very essential to equip rural farmers with updated information through use of (ICT) to enhance production and improve their livelihood.

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GeoFarmer: A monitoring and feedback system for agricultural development projects

Cited by 84 publications

References 36 publications

User-centred design of a digital advisory service: enhancing public agricultural extension for sustainable intensification in Tanzania

User-centred design of a digital advisory service: enhancing public agricultural extension for sustainable intensification in Tanzania

New Approach to Sustainability in Rural Areas Comprising Agriculture Practices–Analysis of Demonstration Farms in the Czech Republic

Use of Information and Communication Technology ICT in Agriculture to Uplift Small Scale Farmers in Rural Pakistan

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