SOCIAL MEDIA: NEW GENERATION TOOLS FOR “AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION”?
Though Social Media applications can be effectively used by extension and advisory services, lack of awareness and skill about its use currently constrain its widespread use. Moreover the organisational culture within extension organisations also restricts exploitation of its full potential by extension professionals, argues Saravanan Raj and Suchiradipta Bhattacharjee in this blog.
Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services currently face several new and complex challenges. As
articulated in the GFR S Position Paper “The New Extensionist”, it needs new capacities to effectively
deal with these challenges (Sulaiman and Davis, 2012). The increasing pluralism in extension funding
and delivery demands new relationships, knowledge flows and partnerships among the wide range
of EAS providers and other actors in the Agricultural Innovations Systems (Davis and Heemskerk,
2012). Social Media can play an important role in enhancing interactions and information flows
among different actors involved in agricultural innovation and also enhance capacities of agricultural
extension and advisory service providers. These are highlighted below drawing examples of its use in
extension and advisory services which are primarily led by voluntary efforts of few individuals,
groups and professional networks.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, consume
and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Kaplan & Haenlein (2009)
define social media as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and
technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the “creation and exchange of user-generated
content.”
Social media has changed the way we
communicate, read, search, think, talk,
watch, listen, and sometimes start a
revolution – be it political and or social.
Social media is more about sociology
and psychology of communication than
about technology. If Facebook was a
country, it would be the second most
populated in the world after China.
The fact that only young people and
teenagers are most active in social
media is turning into an urban myth. Irrespective of age, gender, religion, geography, people are entering in the world of social media. The major five social media websites that are gaining popularity worldwide are Facebook (1.32 billion+), YouTube (1 billion+ unique monthly users), Google+ (500 million+), LinkedIn (277 million+), and Twitter (230 million+).
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION
Developed Countries
Developed countries have started adopting and harvesting the benefits of social media for agricultural extension for some time. For example, US Co-operative extension system and
universities have adopted social media for connecting its clients
especially through facebook, twitter,
pinterst, google+ and youtube (http://www.extension.org/).
The AgChat (Twitter online discussion group by the AgChat Foundation) started in 2009 by a group of American farmers is widely used in USA, UK, Australia and Ireland
for facilitating discussions of industry issues between farmers and agribusinesses has 50,200+ followers and 25,000 tweets (https://twitter.com/agchat).
Many US land grant universities developed social media guidelines for extension. Considerable number of articles written by the extension experts from the co-operative extension system and US universities emphasises the potential role of social media in extension. Some of the useful literatures in this field are as follows:
Amy Harder, Hannah S. Carter, and Christy Chiarelli (2011). Maintaining Professionalism on Facebook: Tips
for Extension Agents. WC107, Agricultural Education and Communication Department, Florida Cooperative
Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.
Mains, M., Jenkins-Howard, B., & Stephenson, L. (2013). Effective use of Facebook for Extension professionals. Journal of Extension, 51(5) Article 5TOT6. Available at:
http://www.joe.org/joe/2013october/tt6.php
Paul Hill (2014). “Connecting” with Your Clients [on Facebook], Journal of Extension, 52 (2) Article # 2COM2.
Available at:http://www.joe.org/joe/2014april/pdf/JOE_v52_2comm2.pdf
Lucas Clayton Fuess (2011). An analysis and recommendations of the use of social media within the Cooperative extension system: Opportunities, Risks and Barriers. Honors Thesis, Presented to the College of Agriculture, Life Sciences, Social Sciences of Cornell University, USA. http://dspace.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/23129/2/Fuess,%20Lucas%20-%20Research%20Honors%20Thesis.pdf
Newbury, Elizabeth, Humphreys, Lee, and Fuess, Lucas (2014) Over the Hurdles: Barriers to Social Media Use in Extension Offices, Journal of Extension, Article number 5FEA1, 52(5). www.joe.org/joe/2014october/a1.php
ustralian Government’s Caring for Our Country program funded the project on “Social Media in griculture” to explore the use of social media (You Tube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, RSS, etc.) as an
extension tool (http://agex.org.au/project/social-media-project/). Research findings from Ontario, Canada indicated that (since 2008) individuals and organizations in the agri-food and rural sectors are including social media tools (Twitter, blog, facebook etc.) in their communication for innovation (Chowdhury and Hambley, 2013).
Developing Countries
Social media use has gained pace in the developing countries too, especially with Facebook. Some examples are given in the table below:
Table 1: Examples of use of Facebook in agriculture extension
Name of
Group/Community/
Pages Description Target users Region Followers/
Members*
Use by farmers
Livestock
Information and
Marketing Centre
(https://www.facebo
ok.com/groups/Lives
tock.TN/ Members (farmers, extension personnel,
scientists, market functionaries, consumers,
local leaders, etc.) of this group share
information related to livestock production,
management, marketing, etc. A separate page
is also on facebook related only to marketing of
livestock.
(https://www.facebook.com/Livestock.Market)
Agricultural
stakeholders
related to
livestock Tamil
Nadu,
India 49 483
Mkulima Young
(Young Farmer)
(https://www.facebo
ok.com/mkulima.you
ng) This page is an information sharing platform for
young farmers started Joseph Macharia, a
young farmer himself. Mostly agro-advisory
and market information are shared. Young farmers Kenya 39 082
Natural farming
Development Centre
(https://www.facebo
ok.com/groups/Natu
ralFarmingTN/). Members of the group share information
related to organic farming, permaculture,
hydroponics, aquaponics, Natural Repellents,
etc. Farmers
interested in
organic and
zero budget
agriculture Tamil
Nadu,
India 16 268
Turmeric Farmers’
Association of India
(https://www.facebo
ok.com/turmeric.far
mers) This page was created by turmeric farmers to
stabilize price of turmeric in the market. Till
date, the farmers connect through the page
and share information to keep turmeric price
stable and increase marketing opportunities of
turmeric. Turmeric
farmers India 2 911
National Ecological
Producers
Association (APNE)
(https://www.facebo
ok.com/anpe.peru) Information related to ecological farming is
shared through the page. Farmers Peru 3 061
Use by extension centres
Krishi Vigyan Kendra,
Namakkal
(https://www.facebo
ok.com/krishi.namak
kal) Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Namakkal communicates
information related to farmers’ training
programmes, availability of inputs etc. Subject
Matter
Specialists of
KVK, farmers,
and other
agricultural
stakeholders Namakkal,
Tamil
Nadu,
India 1464
Use by extension professional networks
Agricultural
Extension in South
Asia (AESA)
(https://www.facebo
ok.com/groups/4284
31183848161/) Members post links to relevant publications on
extension and advisory services,
announcements of workshops and conferences,
major policy decisions on extension, reports of
meetings and workshops relevant to the
broader theme of extension Agricultural
Extension
stakeholders South Asia 7 550
Global Forum for Rur
al Advisory Services
(GFRAS)
https://www.facebo
ok.com/groups/gfras
/ This page provides information related to
advocacy and leadership on pluralistic,
demand-driven rural advisory services. RAS
Professionals
and others Global 1 794
Use by extension personnel
Vivasayam
Karkkalam Mr. Madhu Balan, a public extension officer
started facebook group to cater the Farmers and
others those Tamil
Nadu, 12 118 (Let us Learn
Agriculture)(https://www.facebook.com/groups/madhualan) information needs of famers in 2012. Thisgroup, exchange information on improved farm technologies, initiates discussion with other
farmers and extension personnel, share information and photos on best practices by other farmers, government schemes, etc.
Question and answers, information on Terrace garden, hydrophonics are most discussed topics in this group. who are
interested in agriculture India *As on 7 December 2014
All these examples presented above are initiated by individuals, small groups and networks to disseminate information by and for agricultural stakeholders through social media. The number of followers/members of these pages, communities and groups are increasing everyday and many of them are professionals. Social media use in agriculture is not restricted to any specific age group but users belong to all age groups. While Twitter is a more preferred platform in developed countries, Facebook dominates in developing countries. While farmers in developed countries are active in social media to tell their stories and connect with their clients, in the developing countries, these efforts are scattered and there are only very few cases where extension professionals and farmers participate actively in social media.
CHALLENGES IN USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
1. Passive users: A review of the activities in most of the groups/communities/pages indicated in table 1 shows that most of the users are very passive and only very few are pro-active. While many visit the group pages, only few posts, share and discuss ideas and issues.
2. Irrelevant information: Along with useful things, frequently there is irrelevant information also posted in the social media which increases the need of monitoring.
3. Participation of agricultural stakeholders: Other than groups like Turmeric Farmers Association of India which is formed by farmers, other groups like AESA, YPARD, etc. are used actively only by specific type of users and participation of farmers is almost nil even though they are for all agricultural stakeholders.
4. Infrastructure issues: Limited ICT infrastructure and internet connectivity is still a major issue in rural areas of most developing countries.
5. Mindset of users: Many users still believe that social media is “not for serious business”. It is for just to share personal photos and general information.
THE WAY FORWARD
1. Keeping relevant and adding value: Success of social media use in agricultural extension depends on ability of users in sharing relevant information with other users. Social media champions/ facilitators or active users should streamline the postings or discussions to make it more relevant to users and should add value to the users time spend in social media.
2. Awareness creation and capacity building: Social media is still not considered as an important medium for “agvocacy” (advocating agriculture) by extension professionals, sometimes because of lack of awareness and sometimes because they stereotype their traditional clientele (Diem et al. 2011). Creating awareness among extension professionals and building their capacities to share more information through social media (Newbury et al 2014) can address some of these issues.
3. Sensible use and institutionalising social media: Sensible use of social media and institutionalising the culture of integrated use of media including social media in day to day activities are important to sustaining momentum and also for better sharing and networking.
4. Encouraging self publication and also collective contribution: Social media platforms facilitate self publication. Also, contribution of agricultural stakeholders from across the globe creates a knowledge pool accessible to many, thus making open access to knowledge and information on agriculture.
5. Choosing suitable mix of social media and appropriate content: There are different type of social media with different set of active users and followers. To reach large number of extension stakeholders with diverse content, it is advisable to use suitable mix of social media based on the type and form of the content.
6. Satisfying heterogeneous users: Participants engaged or interested in agricultural extension come from diverse backgrounds and working atmosphere and they have different needs and interest. Hence, the content should be diverse.
7. Changing institutional culture to use social media: Extension organisations should adopt the “social media policy guidelines” for use by extension professionals and encourage the stakeholders to use the social media for interaction and obtaining feedback.
Dr. R. Saravanan is an Associate Professor (Extension Education and Rural Sociology), College of Horticulture and Forestry, Central Agricultural University (CAU), Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, India
and Ms. Suchiradipta Bhattacharjee is a Ph.D Scholar in Agricultural Extension in the School of Social Sciences, College of Post Graduate Studies, Central Agricultural University (CAU), Umiam (Barapani), Meghalaya, India (Authors could be contacted at saravananraj@hotmail.com & suchiradipta.cau@gmail.com respectively)
courtesy-AESA- AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION IN SOUTH ASIA
