Chapters authored
Using Information Technologies (ICTs) to Improve Theobroma cocoa Extension Service: Lessons from the Case of Ghanaian Bean Farmers
Ghana’s modern cocoa production depends on farmers having access to innovations and updated best practices delivered through “new” information and communication technology (ICT) channels. However, extension services continue to face familiar delivery shortfalls affecting both the national-level extent of Ghana’s cocoa production and the local livelihoods of its producers. This chapter draws on questionnaire data collected during a training workshop for postharvest loss prevention with mostly university-educated farmers to explore how they access innovation and best practices information through new and old technological channels. Key findings indicate that while farmers utilize both old and new ICTs, they still experience the familiar barriers of low agricultural extension agent-to-farmer ratios and shortages of resources. Recommendations include (1) ensuring that the affordances of “old” technologies are amplified rather than replaced by “new” ones, and (2) the use of highly scalable educational animations deployed individually for training or through virtual communities of practices to “bypass” the perennial issue of resource shortfalls in extension services.
Part of the book: Shifting Frontiers of Theobroma Cacao
Increasing Lifelong Learning Using Video Animations: The Case of an Agriculture WhatsApp Group in Kenya
Developing new ways of providing information and knowledge for lifelong learning to those on the margins of society with low literacy and access is complicated. Using a case study, this chapter generally demonstrates how smallholder farmers in Kenya engage in opportunities for lifelong learning offered by video animation programs in agriculture in their WhatsApp groups. The definitions of lifelong learning, affordances that technology provides for lifelong learning, and its relationship with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) are offered. Moreover, African philosophies and practices such as Palaver, Harambee, Umuganda, Ubuntu, and Omoluabi and how they relate to and increase lifelong learning are discussed. The successes and challenges of the WhatsApp groups and video animations as sites for lifelong learning are also addressed.
Part of the book: Lifelong Learning - Education for the Future World [Working title]