Abstract
CONTEXTAddressing new agricultural challenges may benefit from open communication among field extension agents and other actors who hold relevant expertise, including subject matter specialists and applied researchers. OBJECTIVEIn the context, this article investigates the contribution of two social media messaging platforms, in Ghana, to facilitating open information sharing and interaction amid the emergence of a new pest, fall armyworm. METHODSUsing thematic content analysis and network analysis, we analysed the types of content exchanged over the platforms, the characteristics of the networks in terms of the involvement of different actors in sending and receiving messages; and through platform user surveys established how such interaction patterns were influenced by social relations, self-representational interests and organisational set-ups and rules. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSThe results indicate that both social media platforms are characterised by relatively centralised network and communication structures, suggesting that participation in especially sending messages is non-egalitarian. Such structural features are not conducive to complex knowledge and problem solving processes such as knowledge integration and joint problem solving. In line with this, the analysis of the actual knowledge and problem solving processes taking place demonstrated that the platforms were used more for knowledge and information dissemination as well as for the distribution of notifications in support of organisational coordination. Our investigations show that social hierarchies, organisational rules and tactics related to identity management influenced these patterns of interaction and posed constraints to open knowledge and information sharing. Nevertheless, the platforms play meaningful roles in supporting knowledge processes, and are likely to generate useful input for knowledge integration and collaborative problem solving in complementary face-to-face settings. SIGNIFICANCEThe study contributes to an emerging research area that relates social media (other than Facebook) to knowledge sharing, problem solving and broader forms of collaboration in professional spaces, in the African agricultural context.
Highlights
There are concerns over the capacity of extension organi sations to incorporate recent scientific insights and other relevant knowledge in their efforts to meet novel agricultural challenges (World Bank, 2012; Klerkx and Proctor, 2013)
We identified two interlinked social media platforms: a platform operated by the MOFA Wenchi District Food and Agriculture Department (DFAD) and one established by the Plantwise Programme of the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), Ghana
The starting point of this study was that social media platforms present opportunities to support and enhance knowledge and problem solving processes in the back-office of extension organisations, in the context of new agronomic challenges - potentially serving as open communication spaces where extension agents, subject matter special ists and applied researchers can freely share content and engage in decentralised and egalitarian forms of interaction
Summary
There are concerns over the capacity of extension organi sations to incorporate recent scientific insights and other relevant knowledge in their efforts to meet novel agricultural challenges (World Bank, 2012; Klerkx and Proctor, 2013). In Ghana, linkages between agricultural extension agents and other expertise (e.g., applied re searchers) are reportedly weak (Adolwa et al, 2017) This isolation of expertise in the back-office of extension is a major agricultural sector concern as it limits the quality of extension (front-office) services delivered by hampering the kind of interaction and collaboration that is needed to access, integrate and distribute appropriate knowledge to address farming challenges (Van Crowder and Anderson, 1997). Given this situation extension organisations may benefit from (intra and inter organisational) open communication among extension agents and actors with relevant expertise, including subject matter specialists and applied researchers (Klerkx and Proctor, 2013). The emergence of the fall armyworm pest in the Ghanaian maize farming system, in the 2016/ 2017 farming season, is an example of such a challenge putting pressure on Ghana’s extension organisations and research institutions to respond in new ways (Abrahams et al, 2017; Day et al, 2017; Godwin et al, 2017)
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