ICTs and agricultural extension

The report of the CTA 2003 Observatory meeting on 'ICTs – Transforming Agricultural Extension? has been published. The report provides an outline of the main issues, developments and trends in agricultural extension, as they relate to ICTs, with a special emphasis on improving rural livelihoods. The report highlights the potential for, and constraints to, using ICTs for agricultural communication and information exchange, and identifies implications of these issues for CTA.

Participants found that "ICTs can be harnessed to have a direct impact on enhancing both rural livelihoods and the agricultural sector in which the rural poor are immersed." They were, however, very cautious about blueprint approaches and technology-of-the-day’ projects.

More background on the 2003 Observatory is at www.cta.int/observatory2003/

Tags: agricultural information extension ICT