Abstract
Considering the challenges on sustainable agriculture in the district, different institutions join hands to overcome these issues and respond to the felt need of working more integrative both in the agricultural sector and environmental knowledge system. Adding a sense of urgency due to COVID-19 into problem analysis, these institutions accelerated the ambition to develop a Digital Farmer Field School (DFFS). This paper elaborates on the co-construction of principles for the design of a Digital Farmer Field School (DFFS) by the local stakeholders in Enrekang district. The local design team design of the DFFS Enrekang is composed of a transdisciplinary team from relevant government institutions and research institutions. The design principles of DFFS are built around inclusive design principles, concepts of interface usability based on different type of access to digital technology models, responsible innovation criteria and learning principles of farmer field school (FFS). The DFFS Enrekang design principles serve as guiding principles and shared value among the collaborating institutions to combine ambition, inspiration, and accountability in the DFFS management and development processes. This tablet based digital learning platform aims to provide an alternative for farmers to access information on sustainable agricultural and environmental practices.
Highlights
Exploring the sustainable agriculture pathways in Enrekang district, the local government collaborates with researchers from inside and outside the country
To make the living lab approach operational, a management and coordination team was formed by the decision makers from key stakeholders including the head of District Agriculture Office, the head of Agriculture Extension Division, the head of District Environment Office, the head of District Livestock and Fisheries office, and the rector of University of Muhammadiyah Enrekang (UNIMEN)
The following four dimensions of the responsible innovation criteria are agreed to be adapted into Digital Farmer Field School (DFFS) Enrekang: - Aligned with the dimension of anticipation, the DFFS interface aims to provide access to training on good agricultural practices, including integrated crop and pest management in times of COVID-19 and beyond
Summary
Exploring the sustainable agriculture pathways in Enrekang district, the local government collaborates with researchers from inside and outside the country. Farmers search to gain insights on environmental sound practices as they observe landslides, river pollution and question health impact of fertilizers and pesticides All these mentioned topics feature on the agenda of the different institutions who are active in rural Enrekang while facing problems of mobility, staff training, communication and other scarce resources which inhibit realising well established goals in terms of extension, communication and farmer learning oriented activities. The paper starts with the background to the DFFS in Enrekang to give a full detail of the context which is required to come to grips with the originality and seriousness of the design and development of the DFFS Enrekang, including the current impact of the COVID-19 on agriculture extension and environmental communication activities. The DFFS design team explored and developed the DFFS Enrekang design principles to formalize the accountability towards the end-users, ensuring that the implementation of a DFFS will benefit the farmers and the rural communication system at large facilitating knowledge creation and exchange
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