Short Abstract:

Limited adoption of sustainable agriculture practices (SAP) among farmers persists due to socio-economic factors. Digital Extension Tool (DET) offer potential for information exchange at individual and collective level. This study explores SAP adoption, DET usage, and its role in fostering social interactions, employing a mixed-methods approach using collective capabilities lens for SAP adoption.

Long Abstract:

Context

Sustainable agriculture practice (SAP) as an integral part of different development discourses envisions ensuring food security, creation of social and economic opportunities and maintenance of environmental ecosystem (World Bank, 2017). Despite benefits of SAP, its adoption among smallholder farmers remains low due to various economic and social factors including lack of information and knowledge. A wide range of literatures have prioritized agriculture extension as a catalyst to minimize information and knowledge gaps among smallholder farmers. Even though agriculture extension worldwide is transitioning from top-down approach to pluralistic model, it is deemed inefficient because of reasons such as lack of coordination between stakeholders, donor dependency and duplication of services (Davis et al., 2020).

With the increase in the penetration of information and communication technology (ICT) such as mobile phones and internet, digital extension tools (DET) have made exchange of agricultural information including of SAPs possible (Bentley et al., 2019). Farmers seek information on SAPs through internet (Ma & Wang, 2020), various social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (Mills et al., 2017; Phillips et al., 2021), and via chat apps such as Whatsapp (Prost et al., 2022). Farmers use DETs to self-train themselves by receiving different technical, economic, commercial and organizational information (Prost et al., 2022). Apart from getting knowledge on sustainable practices at an individual level, DETs have also made collective knowledge-making possible (Phillips et al., 2021), as farmers can communicate information with their peers by sharing videos (Bentley et al., 2019), and through social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook (Phillips et al., 2021). It allows farmers to get reassurance from other farmers by seeking help, extending information to their existing peer groups and also sharing their know-how and learning to other farmers (Prost et al., 2022). Accordingly, learning from such interactions also assists farmers in starting their projects.

Although digital tools have unleashed different possibilities, it is also known to have an ‘ambivalent’ character as it can empower and hinder simultaneously (Witteveen et al., 2017). There are different challenges faced by farmers who have access to and are able to use DETs. Information provided through DETs by various stakeholders are found to be sustainability neutral, meaning that it has information on sustainable farm practices but also focuses equally on the conventional practices that incorporate unsustainable agriculture practices (Batchelor et al., 2014) which could further increase farmers’ adoption of unsustainable methods. In addition, inadequate farm advices have made farmers wary leading to mistrust of information (Prost et al., 2022). Similarly, excess availability of digital services and information has created dilemma for the farmers to choose from (Davis & Franzel, 2018). Accordingly, for farmers who have access to DETs but are not able to use it because of illiteracy and unfamiliar language used, irrelevant information, availability of push only knowledge, distrust between service providers and farmers. Furthermore, farmers also encounter challenges due to inaccessibility of bundle of devices it requires i.e. mobile phones, electricity, and mobile network (Coggins et al., 2022). These hurdles make it difficult for all the farmers to equitable access to information aggravating digital divide, and impeding adoption of sustainable agriculture practices.

In this context, ecological economics and human development consider capability approach (CA) to be a suitable framework to assess sustainability (Pelenc et al., 2015). CA emphasizes on individuals as the driving force for their own development by not just advancing their capabilities but using those capabilities as an agency to change their situation and use it beyond individual well-being and do what they think is valuable (Alkire,2008). While CA focuses on individual’s perception of good, Ballet et al.(2011) argues that to work towards achieving other-regarding goals such as SAP, social interaction is crucial. Interactions leads to understanding shared values and commitments and realizing a common goal. Accordingly, on the basis of CA, the value of social interactions has been focused in the concept of collective capabilities (Ibrahim, 2006). Similarly, different literatures focus on the use of DETs to enhance individual capabilities for the adoption of SAP, but the role DET could play in facilitating interactions among other farmers/groups have been underexplored.

Key words: Digital extension, collective capability, sustainable agriculture

Methodology

This study proposes in exploring the role of DETs in enhancing collective capabilities among smallholder farmers for the adoption of SAPs using an exploratory sequential mixed-method research design (Leavy, 2017). Qualitative data will provide in-depth information on the lived experiences of farmers, process of adopting different SAPs, use of DETs, and its role in social interactions for SAP. Information gathered from qualitative tools will then be used further to design quantitative survey questionnaires which will then be employed to test with larger samples.

Sampling

This study is proposed to be conducted in Nepal. Two districts will be purposively selected where farmers are interested or have started adopting SAPs and has access to digital services. Similarly, participants will be selected using multi-stage sampling by randomly selecting farmer groups working towards SAP and then randomly selecting farmers from the groups. In-depth interviews and key informant qualitative tools will be used to gather qualitative data and survey tool will be used in collecting quantitative data.

Analysis

Based on the findings of qualitative inquiry, quantitative survey will be designed. Accordingly, quantitative findings will be used to build on the qualitative information (Creswell & Clark, 2018). After the findings are integrated, data will be analyzed using the lens of collective capabilities on how farmers use DETs, if they interact with each other using it, how do they use it, what challenges they face and if using it fostered famers to work together for other-regarding goal such as sustainable agriculture practices.

Conclusion

DETs have the potential to enhance individual knowledge and assist social interactions. However, collective knowledge-making through DETs using the lens of collective capability has been underexplored. This research will provide insights on the current status of farmers, role of DET and challenges of using it, which might enable provisions in addressing the needs and curb challenges faced with the use of DETs for smallholder farmers.