Does TV edutainment lead to farmers changing their agricultural practices aiming at increasing productivity?

Abstract

We investigate the influence of an agricultural TV edutainment programme on farmers' decisions to implement changes of agricultural practices. We use data obtained from a survey conducted with 1572 households in Kenya across the target areas of a TV edutainment programme, Shamba-Shape-Up (SSU). A conceptual framework is developed to account for the interaction between farmers watching SSU and internal factors including farmer's and household's characteristics, farmer's views on farming, their trust of sources of influence and their decisions to change their agricultural practices. Structural equations and probit models are used to understand how watching the edutainment TV programme Shamba Shape-Up (SSU) along with farmers and household's characteristics affect maize and dairy farmer's probability to make changes to agricultural practices shown in SSU. We find that SSU has an influence on maize and dairy farmers' decisions to implement changes of agricultural practices. Farmers who watch SSU have a higher probability to implement a greater number of agricultural practices. However, SSU influence varies depending on the agricultural practice recommended as well as on the reasons that farmers have for watching the programme. The probability of implementing agricultural practices shown on SSU was not dependent on the associated difficulty of making such changes. Edutainment TV can be a viable approach to nudge farmers to implement practices that contribute to addressing local and global challenges including adapting to and mitigating against climate change, reducing poverty, and increasing productivity and income of smallholders in developing countries.