gricultural innovation is essential for improving the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers in developing countries such as Bangladesh. Within an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategy for agricultural development, social media is considered a means of networking, collaboration and co-learning, and thereby supporting innovation processes. However, it is not known how extension agents of the Department of Agricultural Extension ‒ the largest public sector organisation ‒ have been utilising social media to strengthen agricultural innovation. Data were collected using a survey with 140 extension agents and key informant interviews with 20 extension agents who worked in the eastern region of Bangladesh. The findings indicated that extension agents mostly used social media to learn professional tasks and to some extent technical knowledge. Extension agents considered social media as a means of supporting innovation functions, such as entrepreneurial activities, market formation, resource mobilisation and legitimisation. However, the use of social media did not support second loop learning as well as system interaction
Recent experiences in participatory video-making raise the question of how best to use this medium for enhancing local seed innovation systems. Embedded in a mini-process of participatory action research, two styles of participatory video—scripted and scriptless—were tested and assessed together...
WhatsApp sends real-time messages and is one of the world’s most popular communication applications in the 21st century. The present study highlights and examines the domestication of WhatsApp among farmers. An exhaustive whatsapp user list was prepared from each village...
In theory, under the federal structure agricultural extension services can serve communities better as it aims to be client responsive and accountable to its consumers at the village level. However, poor understanding of federalism that has only recently emerged from...
This publication represents a synthesis of assessments of national agricultural innovation systems in countries of Central Asia, South Caucasus and Turkey. The first chapter gives an introduction of the project “Capacity Development for Analysis and Strengthening of Agricultural Innovation Systems...
This brochure is on the Virtual Extension and Research Information and Communication Network (VERCON), a conceptual model that any country can use and adapt to improve access to agricultural information and knowledge sharing and to strengthen the linkages between rural...