Evidence of impact and potential scalability

Impact indicators: While before–after comparison of knowledge is an important impact indicator of broadcast services, the time and cost saved, increased income, and better market decisions and participation can be important impact indicators for web- and mobile-based advisory services. Continuous engagement of users in discussions, creation and sharing of contents, increase in the membership subscription, and feedback of members can serve as impact indicators for social media.

Potential scalability: Scalability still remains a major problem in ICT projects after nearly three decades of their use in EAS, mainly because there is no fixed roadmap for success. Scalability is very much dependent on the context of use and can best be suggested by continuous monitoring and evaluation and user feedback of applicability of the information and advisory services provided.

Issues of sustainability of the approach

There is more than one factor that influences sustainability of ICT initiatives. Profit-oriented or financially sustainable services are more user demand-oriented, as subscription is important to meet operational expenses and for the project’s financial sustainability. Customised demand-based information and advice on ICTs are not choices but a necessity for long-term sustainability. Applications like social media, mApps, and mobile- and web-based farmer specific advisory services enable high user engagement and help them to customise the information they retrieve, thus making it personalised and applicable, which in turn ensures the long-term sustainability of ICT projects.