Abstract
Information and communication technologies (ICTs), specifically those that are digital and interactive, present opportunities for enhanced intermediation between actors in Ghana’s agricultural extension system. To understand these opportunities, this study investigates the capabilities of ICTs in support of seven forms of intermediation in the context of agricultural extension: disseminating (information), retrieving (information), harvesting (information), matching (actors to services), networking (among actors), coordinating (actors), and co-creating (among actors). The study identifies the types of ICTs currently functioning in Ghana’s agricultural system, and applies a Delphi-inspired research design to determine the consensus and dissensus of researchers, scientists, and practitioners about the potential of these ICTs to support each of the seven intermediation capabilities. The findings reveal that experts reached consensus that interactive voice response (IVR) technologies currently have the highest potential to support disseminating, retrieving, harvesting, and matching. Meanwhile, social media messaging (SMM) technologies are currently seen as highly capable of supporting coordinating and, to a lesser extent, co-creating, but no consensus is reached on the potential of any of the technologies to support networking.
Highlights
Agricultural productivity growth in Ghana, necessary to bridge the gap between potential and actual production of food and cash crops, is partly hampered by the prevailing approach to agricultural extension service delivery (Abdulai et al, 2020; Bua et al, 2020; McNamara et al, 2014; MOFA, 2007; World Bank, 2017)
First round of consensus-building The first round of the expert consensus-building, with the four-person internal panel of experts, collated views on the intermediation capability of each Information and communication technologies (ICTs) identified in the Ghanaian agricultural system
In terms of the ICTs with a high capability to support intermediation capabilities, the aggregated results of the honeycomb evaluation show that interactive voice response (IVR) outbound technologies were viewed as having very high capability to support disseminating, and IVR inbound technologies were viewed as having high capability to support retrieving
Summary
Agricultural productivity growth in Ghana, necessary to bridge the gap between potential and actual production of food and cash crops, is partly hampered by the prevailing approach to agricultural extension service delivery (Abdulai et al, 2020; Bua et al, 2020; McNamara et al, 2014; MOFA, 2007; World Bank, 2017) This approach is typified by extension largely focused on knowledge and technology transfer to farmers, rather than taking on broader roles (e.g., knowledge brokering, facilitating access to credit, and supporting market linkages) and serving a broader stakeholder base (Agyekumhene et al, 2018; Munthali et al, 2018). This approach envisages strengthened research–extension linkages, broader service delivery lines, and a larger number of service providers, with the intention of meeting the demand of farmers and other value chain actors for extension services
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