Information and communication technologies to provide agricultural advice to smallholder farmers: Experimental evidence from Uganda
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Date
2020-03-26
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley Periodicals, Inc
Abstract
Agricultural advisory services generally rely on interpersonal knowledge transfers by agricultural extension agents who visit farmers to provide information. This approach is not always effective and has proved
hard to scale sustainably, particularly in highly dispersed smallholder farming systems. Information and
communication technologies (ICTs) have been advanced as a promising way to overcome many of the
problems associated with conventional agricultural extension. We evaluate the effectiveness of an ICTmediated approach to deliver agricultural information in a field experiment conducted among small-scale
maize farmers in eastern Uganda. Three complementary technologies designed to address both informational and behavioral constraints to technical change are considered. First, we investigate the effectiveness
of audiovisual messages (video) as a means of delivering information on input use and improved maize
management practices to farmers. Second, we quantify the additional impact of complementing video
with an interactive voice response (IVR) service. Third, we estimate the incremental effect of timesensitive short message services (SMS) messages designed to remind farmers about applying key practices
at specific points during the season. We find that households that were shown a short video on how to
become better maize farmers were performing significantly better on a knowledge test, more likely to
apply recommended practices, and more likely to use fertilizer than households that did not view the
video. These same households also reported maize yields about 10.5% higher than those that did not view
the video. We find little evidence of an incremental effect of the IVR service or SMS reminders.
Description
Keywords
Agricultural extension, information and communication technology, interactive voice response, maize, short message services, Uganda, video.
Citation
Van Campenhout, Bjorn, David J. Spielman, and E. I. Lecoutere. 'Information and Communication Technologies to Provide Agricultural Advice to Smallholder Farmers: Experimental Evidence from Uganda', American Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 103/no. 1, (2021), pp. 317-337.