ICTs for Agroecology - Shifting Agricultural ICT4D from "I" to "C"

The urgent need for inclusive and sustainable agriculture has seen transition towards holistic, situated and participatory approaches to agricultural development such as agroecology. In this paper we use observations drawn from an action research project to examine the implications of such approaches on ICT design and implementation strategy. We suggest that ICTs designed for sustainable agriculture need to shift their emphasis from packaging and transmitting information toward facilitating communication and sharing of practice, adopting diverse collective, social and situated forms of knowing and learning.

[1]  John M. Silvester,et al.  The Social Life of Information: Brown, J.S., & Duguid, P. (2000). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing. ISBN 0-87584-762-5. 320 pages , 2000, Internet High. Educ..

[2]  Shawn Cole,et al.  ‘Mobile’izing Agricultural Advice: Technology Adoption, Diffusion, and Sustainability , 2020, The Economic Journal.

[3]  Nicholas M. Allix.  Book Review: Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity , 2000 .

[4]  Rui Roberto Ramos,et al.  The formalising regime and its formalising technology : the case of informal trade in Recife, Brazil , 2015 .

[5]  Chris Westrup,et al.  Power/Knowledge and Impact Assessment: Creating New Spaces for Expertise in International Development , 2012 .

[6]  N. Ramankutty,et al.  Recent patterns of crop yield growth and stagnation , 2012, Nature Communications.

[7]  Rajesh Veeraraghavan,et al.  Digital Green: Participatory video for agricultural extension , 2007, 2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development.

[8]  Ioan Fazey,et al.  Integrating local and scientific knowledge for environmental management. , 2010, Journal of environmental management.

[9]  E. Wenger.  Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity , 1998 .

[10]  M. V. D. Velden,et al.  Knowledge facts, knowledge fiction: the role of ICTs in knowledge management for development , 2002 .

[11]  Rana P. B. Singh,et al.  Environmental consequences of agricultural development: a case study from the green revolution state of Haryana, India. , 2000 .

[12]  Lran.  Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter , 2011 .

[13]  Andrew M. Dearden,et al.  Participatory IT design and participatory development: a comparative review , 2008, PDC.

[14]  M. Altieri,et al.  Agroecology, Food Sovereignty, and the New Green Revolution , 2012 .

[15]  Marcus Foth,et al.  Action Research in the Design of New Media and ICT Systems , 2005 .

[16]  S. Revi Sterling,et al.  Constructing informed consent in ICT4D research , 2010, ICTD.

[17]  Elisa Oreglia,et al.  When technology doesn't fit: information sharing practices among farmers in rural China , 2013, ICTD.

[18]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation , 1991 .

[19]  Jo A. Tacchi.  Ethnographic action research: Media, information and communicative ecologies for development initiatives , 2015 .

[20]  Jenna Burrell,et al.  The promise (and pitfalls) of ICT for agriculture initiatives , 2016 .

[21]  P. Murray,et al.  Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture: Participatory Learning and Adaptive Management in Times of Environmental Uncertainty , 2001 .

[22]  Jules Pretty,et al.  Participatory learning for sustainable agriculture , 1995 .

[23]  John Seely Brown,et al.  Book Reviews : The Social Life of Information By John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000. 320 pages , 2000 .

[24]  V. Brown.  Multiple knowledges, multiple languages: are the limits of my language the limits of my world? , 2010 .

[25]  R. Evenson,et al.  Assessing the Impact of the Green Revolution, 1960 to 2000 , 2003, Science.

[26]  Shawn Cole,et al.  The Value of Advice: Evidence from Mobile Phone-Based Agricultural Extension , 2013 .

[27]  Gillian R. Hayes.  The relationship of action research to human-computer interaction , 2011, TCHI.

[28]  N. Röling,et al.  Ecological Knowledge System , 1996 .

[29]  Miguel A. Altieri,et al.  Agroecology: the science of natural resource management for poor farmers in marginal environments , 2002 .

[30]  Marleen Huysman,et al.  Knowledge Management in Practice: Pitfalls and Potentials for Development , 2010 .

[31]  Prabhu L Pingali,et al.  Green Revolution: Impacts, limits, and the path ahead , 2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[32]  Tapan S. Parikh,et al.  Avaaj Otalo: a field study of an interactive voice forum for small farmers in rural India , 2010, CHI.

[33]  A. D. Noble,et al.  Response to Comment on “Resource-Conserving Agriculture Increases Yields in Developing Countries” , 2007 .

[34]  J. Morison,et al.  Resource-conserving agriculture increases yields in developing countries. , 2006, Environmental science & technology.