Strengthening digital agricultural extension and advisory services in smallholder farming

Abstract

Common barriers to an inclusive development of agricultural digitalization include lack of infrastructure and reception coverage, high cost of digital devices and management and maintenance of information and communications technology (ICT) facilities and products, weak regulatory framework, as well as poor institutional capacity and governance. It is therefore critical to strengthen the uptake of digital agricultural extension and advisory services (EAS) by clients, especially smallholder farmers to promote a healthy agricultural digitalization that is both economically efficient and socially equitable. This requires the key actors within the digital EAS ecosystem to collaborate and take complementary measures to bridge the supply side and demand side and improve the provision and delivery of digital EAS to a variety of clients, in particular smallholder farmers.