Improving Agricultural Extension with Digital data

This policy brief shows how digital tools can help to ensure that public money for agricul-tural extension is spent wisely. Governments often fund offices, training centers, and the salaries of extension officers, but cannot eas-ily review the impacts of these expenditures. This is because the activities of extension agents are not monitored systematically. Ex-ension services rarely generate quantitative data on the effects of their work.

Using digital dissemination tools, extension services can more easily report on achievement of targets. Planners can use farmers‘ digital feedback to adapt planning of activities to local needs. Policy-makers can review the work of extension services based on data from the ground