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Guide on digital agricultural extension and advisory services

Use of smartphone applications by smallholder farmers

Year of publication 2023

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 71 p.

Author FAO

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (stand-alone)

ISBN 978-92-5-137561-7

Synopsis (short abstract) Digital agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) have a great potential to enhance accessibility, delivery, transparency, scope and impacts of information and services for smallholder farmers. However, this potential is often unfully harnessed and the benefits of digital AEAS unequally distributed due to an evident, widening digital divide between rural and urban areas, gender, and different social groups both within and among regions. Due to low-level e-literacy and digital skills, particularly smallholder farmers in rural areas in developing countries have limited access to and utilization of digital AEAS. Considering the above-mentioned benefits of digital AEAS, their poor uptake by smallholder farmers, and the importance of digital empowerment of smallholder farmers in particular, this guide, targeting smallholder farmers in need of digital AEAS as its principal users, provides a set of tools to enhance their digital skills in terms of basic knowledge and skills on using digital tools, methods of access to digital AEAS, methods of access to e-commerce, and capacity building.

Cite this content as:

FAO. 2023. Guide on digital agricultural extension and advisory services – Use of smartphone applications by smallholder farmers. Rome.

https://doi.org/10.4060/cc4022en

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Language English

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