Coggins Sam, McCampbell Mariette, Sharma Akriti, Sharma Rama, Haefele Stephan M, Karki Emma, Hetherington Jack, Smith Jeremy, Brown Brendan
School of Engineering, Australian National University, Acton, ACT, 2600, Australia.
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, 38 Thynne Street, Bruce, ACT, 2617, Australia.
Glob Food Sec. 2022 Mar;32:100577. doi: 10.1016/j.gfs.2021.100577.
Digital extension tools (DETs) include phone calls, WhatsApp groups and specialised smartphone applications used for agricultural knowledge brokering. We researched processes through which DETs have (and have not) been used by farmers and other extension actors in low- and middle-income countries. We interviewed 40 DET developers across 21 countries and 101 DET users in Bihar, India. We found DET use is commonly constrained by fifteen pitfalls (unawareness of DET, inaccessible device, inaccessible electricity, inaccessible mobile network, insensitive to digital illiteracy, insensitive to illiteracy, unfamiliar language, slow to access, hard to interpret, unengaging, insensitive to user's knowledge, insensitive to priorities, insensitive to socio-economic constraints, irrelevant to farm, distrust). These pitfalls partially explain why women, less educated and less wealthy farmers often use DETs less, as well as why user-driven DETs (e.g. phone calls and chat apps) are often used more than externally-driven DETs (e.g. specialised smartphone apps). Our second key finding was that users often made - not just found - DETs useful for themselves and others. This suggests the word 'appropriation' conceptualises DET use more accurately and helpfully than the word 'adoption'. Our final key finding was that developers and users advocated almost ubiquitously for involving desired users in DET provision. We synthesise these findings in a one-page framework to help funders and developers facilitate more useable, useful and positively impactful DETs. Overall, we conclude developers increase DET use by recognizing users as fellow developers - either through collaborative design or by designing adaptable DETs that create room for user innovation.
数字推广工具（DETs）包括用于农业知识传播的电话、WhatsApp群组和专门的智能手机应用程序。我们研究了低收入和中等收入国家的农民及其他推广行为者使用（或未使用）数字推广工具的过程。我们采访了来自21个国家的40位数字推广工具开发者以及印度比哈尔邦的101位数字推广工具用户。我们发现，数字推广工具的使用通常受到十五个陷阱的限制（对数字推广工具不了解、设备无法使用、电力供应不足、移动网络无法连接、对数字文盲不敏感、对文盲不敏感、语言不熟悉、访问速度慢、难以理解、缺乏吸引力、对用户知识不敏感、对优先事项不敏感、对社会经济限制不敏感、与农场无关、不信任）。这些陷阱部分解释了为什么女性、受教育程度较低和较贫困的农民使用数字推广工具的频率往往较低，以及为什么用户驱动的数字推广工具（如电话和聊天应用程序）的使用频率通常高于外部驱动的数字推广工具（如专门的智能手机应用程序）。我们的第二个主要发现是，用户不仅发现数字推广工具对自己有用，而且还使其对他人有用。这表明，与“采用”一词相比，“挪用”一词能更准确、更有益地概念化数字推广工具的使用。我们的最后一个主要发现是，开发者和用户几乎普遍主张让目标用户参与数字推广工具的提供。我们在一个单页框架中综合了这些发现，以帮助资助者和开发者促进更实用、更有用且具有积极影响力的数字推广工具的开发。总体而言，我们得出结论，开发者可以通过将用户视为共同开发者来增加数字推广工具的使用，这可以通过协作设计或设计适应性强的数字推广工具来实现，为用户创新留出空间。
