| CAN THE ICT-BASED EXTENSION APPROACH BE AN ALTERNATIVE TO CONVENTIONAL EXTENSION METHODS? |
| Paper ID : 1039-FCANVU |
| Authors |
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Emile Sobhy Mikhaiel * Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Research Institute (AERDRI), Agriculture Research Center(ARC), Egypt. |
| Abstract |
| Agricultural extension plays an essential role in promoting agricultural productivity, increasing food security, and improving rural livelihood where most farmers and smallholders in developing countries live in rural areas and are in most cases divorced from technology, Extension, and other vital agricultural support services needed to achieve rural sustainable development goals. Agricultural extension workers are seeking to make rural communities a better place by providing them with timely and relevant information using many tools, applications of communications, and extension teaching methods to influence farmers' behaviors and make a positive impact. From listening, interest, and being aware, to creating the need to change, and having a clear vision to adopt new technologies. Thus, extension services are relevant to smallholder farmers, who remain the bedrock of the agricultural and food supply chains in such developing countries. Many agricultural extension approaches and methods have been adopted and implemented over the last decades, some of them described as traditional approaches and others as modern, especially the ICT apps.-based extension approach which is known as an electronic agricultural extension. Extension activities must be multi-media to direct the process of technological and social change to achieve development effectively. Not all approaches are appropriate for all countries, situations, purposes, technologies, users, stages of decision-making, and adoption. An argument has been noted about the capability of the ICTs-based extension approach to completely replace the other conventional methods. The current working paper discusses that in the light of researchers' experiences, and viewpoints to answer the asked question. |
| Keywords |
| e-Extension, ICT-Based Extension approach, Extension Methods |
| Status: Accepted |