Social Media: New Generation Tools for Agricultural Extension ?

social media aesa blogThough Social Media applications can be effectively used by extension and advisory services, lack of awareness and skill about its use currently constrain its widespread use. Moreover the organisational culture within extension organisations also restricts exploitation of its full potential by extension professionals, argues Saravanan Raj and Suchiradipta Bhattacharjee in this AESA blog.

Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services currently face several new and complex challenges. As articulated in the GFRAS Position Paper “The New Extensionist”, it needs new capacities to effectively deal with these challenges (Sulaiman and Davis, 2012). The increasing pluralism in extension funding and delivery demands new relationships, knowledge flows and partnerships among the wide range of EAS providers and other actors in the Agricultural Innovations Systems (Davis and Heemskerk, 2012). Social Media can play an important role in enhancing interactions and information flows among different actors involved in agricultural innovation and also enhance capacities of agricultural extension and advisory service providers. These are highlighted below drawing examples of its use in extension and advisory services which are primarily led by voluntary efforts of few individuals, groups and professional networks.

Read the full blog written by Raj Saravanan and Suchiradipta Bhattacharjee from the Agricultrual Extension in South Asia Network (AESA).