Empowering smallholder farmers to access digital agricultural extension and advisory services

FAO

Empowering smallholder farmers to access digital agricultural extension and advisory services

Copyright licence

Year of publication 2021

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 8p.

Author FAO

Publisher FAO ;

Category Policy brief

Edition 1

Full item page

Synopsis (short abstract) Smallholder farmers face a variety of challenges and capacity gaps in accessing digital agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS). Recent studies have revealed that smallholder farmers’ low digital literacy, along with insufficient digital human capital development and infrastructure investments in rural areas, has become paramount barriers and constraints for them to access and effectively realize the potential of digital AEAS. Therefore, smallholder farmers need to be empowered by innovative approaches to enable them to access digital AEAS and achieve economic, environmental, and social gains sustainably, thus leaving no one behind in the era of digital technology advancements.

Language English

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Common barriers to an inclusive development of agricultural digitalization include lack of infrastructure and reception coverage, high cost of digital devices and management and maintenance of information and communications technology (ICT) facilities and products, weak regulatory framework, as well as poor institutional capacity and governance. It is therefore critical to strengthen the uptake of digital agricultural extension and advisory services (EAS) by clients, especially smallholder farmers to promote a healthy agricultural digitalization that is both economically efficient and socially equitable. This requires the key actors within the digital EAS ecosystem to collaborate and take complementary measures to bridge the supply side and demand side and improve the provision and delivery of digital EAS to a variety of clients, in particular smallholder farmers.
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Digital agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) have a great potential to enhance accessibility, delivery, transparency, scope and impacts of information and services for smallholder farmers. However, this potential is often unfully harnessed and the benefits of digital AEAS unequally distributed due to an evident, widening digital divide between rural and urban areas, gender, and different social groups both within and among regions. Due to low-level e-literacy and digital skills, particularly smallholder farmers in rural areas in developing countries have limited access to and utilization of digital AEAS. Considering the above-mentioned benefits of digital AEAS, their poor uptake by smallholder farmers, and the importance of digital empowerment of smallholder farmers in particular, this guide, targeting smallholder farmers in need of digital AEAS as its principal users, provides a set of tools to enhance their digital skills in terms of basic knowledge and skills on using digital tools, methods of access to digital AEAS, methods of access to e-commerce, and capacity building.
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Digital technologies are rapidly transforming how agricultural knowledge and services are delivered, offering promising avenues to bridge gaps in access to information, markets, and decision-making for rural populations. In South Asia, particularly in Bangladesh and India, digital extension and advisory services (EAS) are increasingly being adopted to support smallholder farmers. However, these innovations often fail to adequately account for gender-based disparities in access, use, and benefit. This risks the further exclusion of women from agrifood system opportunities.Despite their central role in agriculture, rural women in both countries continue to face systemic challenges, including limited land ownership, low digital literacy, mobility restrictions, and social norms that hinder their participation in extension services. The gender digital divide, which is further widened by lower mobile phone ownership and internet use among women, remains a major barrier to realizing the full potential of digital EAS in supporting equitable and inclusive agricultural development.This study examines the gender responsiveness of digital extension and advisory services in Bangladesh and India. It draws on literature reviews, stakeholder surveys, and field research with women farmers and service providers. By applying a conceptual framework that evaluates five dimensions (access, relevance, needs assessment, intentionality, and learning mechanisms), the study analyzes both enabling environments and practical interventions that shape women’s digital engagement in agriculture.