Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
-
Policy briefEmpowering smallholder farmers to access digital agricultural extension and advisory services 2021
Also available in:
No results found.Smallholder farmers face a variety of challenges and capacity gaps in accessing digital agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS). Recent studies have revealed that smallholder farmers’ low digital literacy, along with insufficient digital human capital development and infrastructure investments in rural areas, has become paramount barriers and constraints for them to access and effectively realize the potential of digital AEAS. Therefore, smallholder farmers need to be empowered by innovative approaches to enable them to access digital AEAS and achieve economic, environmental, and social gains sustainably, thus leaving no one behind in the era of digital technology advancements. -
Book (stand-alone)Assessing the digital readiness and communication ecosystem of rural youth
Methodological guidelines
2024Also available in:
No results found.Digitalization is a potential game-changer to boost youth engagement and leadership in agrifood systems. Digital engagement can increase youth access to timely information, training, or marketing opportunities while providing more venues for peer learning, networking, and participation in policy dialogues. Yet, the transformative power of digital technologies also entails the risk of widening existing divides. As we seek to engage youth in the digital space, we must consider a series of interrelated factors that influence their online experiences ranging from digital access, use, and literacy, to overall information flows, offline communication resources, social interactions, and the norms shaping them. These methodological guidelines will be a useful resource for development professionals who wish to leverage communication and digital technologies in their work with and for youth. The document provides an analytical framework and practical orientation to conduct age-specific and gender-responsive research on digital readiness and the overall communication ecosystem of young people in order to inform inclusive engagement strategies and youth-centred digital services. Section 1 explains the rationale behind investing time and resources in appraising the existing communication ecosystem before designing any initiative aimed at engaging youth in agrifood systems and in rural areas. Section 2 outlines an analytical framework to unpack the digital readiness and the communication ecosystem of young rural women and men along major investigation areas: digital access, use and skills; information flows; offline communication resources; and social capital and social norms. Section 3 describes how to conduct hands-on research combining the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Section 4 summarizes final considerations and take-home messages. The Annexes provide two examples of data collection tools, namely a mobile survey questionnaire and a focus group discussion guide, while the Field Stories present real-life examples testifying to the multiple and varied applications of the methodology within the scope of FAO’s Integrated Country Approach (ICA) for Boosting Decent Jobs for Youth in the Agrifood System project. -
Policy briefStrengthening digital agricultural extension and advisory services in smallholder farming 2023
Also available in:
No results found.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.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
No results found.