Paper long abstract:

Value chain partnerships are increasingly seen as a means to improve smallholder access to crucial services. Such multi-actor partnerships are however often characterized by stakeholder conflicts and do not necessarily result in benefits to farmers. Thus deliberate actions are needed to safeguard inclusiveness in partnerships. An important tool to contribute to this has been argued to be by improving communication in ways which reduce information asymmetries. This study explores the notion whether smallholder use of smartphones in smallholder contexts for farm monitoring purposes could enhance inclusiveness in partnerships. To do this, the study answers two research questions: (i) In what ways does co-designing farm monitoring platforms with smallholders influence farmer capability to monitor and collect farm information via smartphones (ii) How and to what extent does communicating farm information through smartphones influence farmer sense of inclusiveness in value chain partnerships? The study adopts an Action Design Research approach in assessing co-designing and testing of farmer oriented smartphone platforms in Techiman, Ghana. We find that a participatory process of co-designing a simple platform interface was significant in improving farmer ability to comprehend and use smartphone based digital platforms especially through the use of context relevant stories and interactive activities as a means of engaging them in the design process. After using the platform for a season, farmers deemed the platform helpful in enabling them gain access to specific extension advice as well as demonstrating their individual accountability to partners as a trust building mechanism. Farmer oriented platforms therefore made positive contributions to farmer inclusiveness in partnerships by enhancing farmer ability to make farm advice more tailored to their needs and to build trust. On the other hand, farmers did not feel empowered to use the platforms to push for material support or flexibility from partners in response to emerging farm conditions such as pest and disease outbreaks, particularly since this would involve further costs and risk to the more powerful partners. We find that on matters where conflict of interests were expected to arise, unequal power relations reduced perception of the platform's effectiveness at enabling inclusiveness. This highlights a need for critical consideration and adjustment of the social and political dimensions of partnership interactions, in tandem with the advancement of digital innovations, in order to effectively facilitate inclusiveness in partnerships.