Enhancing Real Time Information Delivery to Small-holder Farmers in Africa and South Asia through Community Knowledge Workers

WorldAgInfo Project Solution Scenario 3: Developing Capacity at the Community Level. Based on the deliberations of participant groups in Workshop 1, the WorldAgInfo Design Team drafted a problems and solutions summary document (available within Section Three of the Final Report). This is one of several potential solution scenarios to emerge through that process. These were in turn used to inform proposed information projects generated by Workshop 2 participants in Livingstone, Zambia (available within Section Two of the Final Report).Solution Scenario Concept: During the site visits to Asia and Africa regions, the WorldAgInfo project Design Team members observed that the information delivered by the government run extension system does not reach smallholders at the village level. This impacts the adoption (or non-adoption) of crop management practices by small holder farmers such as adoption of improved seeds, pest management practices and other farm management practices, etc. The concept presented here addresses this constraint by building a large cadre of “Community Knowledge Workers” to be placed at the “Village Knowledge Centers” to effectively work with smallholders in providing real-time information on production technologies/practices through the use of both conventional methods and through the emerging tools of ICTs