The study highlights that providing in-service education for ICT experts, conducting regular training initiatives for ICT agents, and maximizing mass media in informing the villagers on aspects of ICTs can significantly improve the performance and output of these rural ICT offices.
The farmers in the northeastern zone of Nigeria perceived ICTs as useful tools in providing information on new agricultural techniques, weather conditions, disease outbreaks, public health, business, and ways to send short messages to people. This implies that the benefits of ICTs in the said areas are relevant to the respondents’ livelihood, social, and health affairs.
Amidst declining natural resources for production and the need to enhance livelihoods of those who depend on agriculture, India ventured on maximizing the potent of information communication technologies (ICTs) to address challenges in the agriculture sector. Bhalekar, Ingle, and Pathak (2015) studied some ICT projects on agriculture for rural development in India. Three of these projects focused on promoting agricultural development. Lessons from these studies indicate that ICTs can build up
FAO is pleased to announce the launch of its e-learning course on Communication for Rural Development! By promoting training in ComDev, FAO hopes to continue building capacity in the use of participatory approaches to address the knowledge and information needs of rural stakeholders and to facilitate their active involvement in development initiatives. Communication for Development (ComDev) has proven to be a key element in improving the effectiveness and sustainability of development
The 5th International Conference on Mobile Communication Technology for Development (M4D2016) will be held in Maputo, Mozambique on October 21-22, 2016. This conference is open to researchers, practitioners and all those with interests in the use, evaluation, and theorizing of Mobile Technologies for Development. The M4D2016 conference combines two days of plenary parallel paper sessions, panel sessions, short presentations, posters and workshops. In addition, it will include pre-conference workshops for
Mobile phones have contributed in various ways to rural development, from reducing information asymmetry, improving functional networks, to increasing access to services and finance. Yet a digital gender divide exists. The study examines gender perspectives on the use of mobile phones by the rural poor by identifying their information needs using gender-disaggregated statistics gathered from developing economies in South and South East Asia. The study is divided into two sections. The first section
Information and Communication Technologies are essential for achieving 2030 Sustainable Development through commitment to the vision of the World Summit on the Information Society. On 16th December, countries reaffirmed their commitment to utilizing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as an essential tool for achieving the new Sustainable Development Goals at a high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly. The General Assembly adopted the outcome document on the overall review of the implementation of
With the aim of increasing the body of literature on Rural Communication Services (RCS), a group of leading universities in the field of rural communication has partnered with FAO under the umbrella of the Forum on Communication for Development & Community Media for Family Farming (FCCM). The academics involved – from the University of Guelph, University of Reading, Wageningen University, University of the Philippines Los Baños, and the University of Queensland – have
The MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) through Project Manager Kishor Jagtap is working on a novel initiative in rural Maharashtra, India. His team is working with Digital Green, an international non-profit development organisation spreading the use of clean technologies among women farmers in the Wardha and Yavatmal districts of the state. MSSRF rolled out the Digital Green model – video-based demonstration of the best farm practices – in 2013 across 30
Written by Cleofe Torres, College of Development Communication UPLB Are ICTs a boon or a bane in family farming? This was the question that emerged in the virtual discussions conducted in Asia, Africa, Latin America and at the global level in the last quarter of 2014. Majority of the discussants brought out the benefits of ICTs to family farming on two aspects: technical and social.
