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Book (stand-alone)Assessing the digital readiness and communication ecosystem of rural youth
Methodological guidelines
2024Also available in:
No results found.Digitalization is a potential game-changer to boost youth engagement and leadership in agrifood systems. Digital engagement can increase youth access to timely information, training, or marketing opportunities while providing more venues for peer learning, networking, and participation in policy dialogues. Yet, the transformative power of digital technologies also entails the risk of widening existing divides. As we seek to engage youth in the digital space, we must consider a series of interrelated factors that influence their online experiences ranging from digital access, use, and literacy, to overall information flows, offline communication resources, social interactions, and the norms shaping them. These methodological guidelines will be a useful resource for development professionals who wish to leverage communication and digital technologies in their work with and for youth. The document provides an analytical framework and practical orientation to conduct age-specific and gender-responsive research on digital readiness and the overall communication ecosystem of young people in order to inform inclusive engagement strategies and youth-centred digital services. Section 1 explains the rationale behind investing time and resources in appraising the existing communication ecosystem before designing any initiative aimed at engaging youth in agrifood systems and in rural areas. Section 2 outlines an analytical framework to unpack the digital readiness and the communication ecosystem of young rural women and men along major investigation areas: digital access, use and skills; information flows; offline communication resources; and social capital and social norms. Section 3 describes how to conduct hands-on research combining the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Section 4 summarizes final considerations and take-home messages. The Annexes provide two examples of data collection tools, namely a mobile survey questionnaire and a focus group discussion guide, while the Field Stories present real-life examples testifying to the multiple and varied applications of the methodology within the scope of FAO’s Integrated Country Approach (ICA) for Boosting Decent Jobs for Youth in the Agrifood System project. -
Book (stand-alone)Guide on digital agricultural extension and advisory services
Use of smartphone applications by smallholder farmers
2023Also available in:
No results found.Digital agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) have a great potential to enhance accessibility, delivery, transparency, scope and impacts of information and services for smallholder farmers. However, this potential is often unfully harnessed and the benefits of digital AEAS unequally distributed due to an evident, widening digital divide between rural and urban areas, gender, and different social groups both within and among regions. Due to low-level e-literacy and digital skills, particularly smallholder farmers in rural areas in developing countries have limited access to and utilization of digital AEAS. Considering the above-mentioned benefits of digital AEAS, their poor uptake by smallholder farmers, and the importance of digital empowerment of smallholder farmers in particular, this guide, targeting smallholder farmers in need of digital AEAS as its principal users, provides a set of tools to enhance their digital skills in terms of basic knowledge and skills on using digital tools, methods of access to digital AEAS, methods of access to e-commerce, and capacity building. -
MeetingScaling up inclusive digitalization in agricultural value chains
Thirty-sixth Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC 36)
2022In Asia and the Pacific, digital transformation occurs at all stages of the value chains, from food production to consumption. The ongoing food e-commerce revolution is happening at the same time that mobile-based business models are emerging to provide advisory, marketing and financial services at scale to smallholder farmers. A parallel revolution in Industry 4.0 technologies is taking agro-industries to new levels of efficiency. Digitalization offers great potential for improving the efficiency and sustainability of value chains, and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 2 and 13 (No Poverty, Zero Hunger and Climate Action). There are, however, several risks associated with digitalization, from potential job losses to environmental degradation and data governance concerns. Different value chains, and actors within them, digitalize at varying speeds and would therefore require tailored digitalization strategies to leave no one behind. Policymakers in the region need to facilitate the scaling up of digital innovations along agricultural value chains in an inclusive and sustainable manner, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Members are invited to provide guidance on how FAO can best support them in fostering the inclusive digitalization of agricultural and food value chains.
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