Using Information Technologies (ICTs) to Improve Theobroma cocoa Extension Service: Lessons from the Case of Ghanaian Bean Farmers

Abstract

Ghana’s modern cocoa production depends on farmers having access to innovations and updated best practices delivered through “new” information and communication technology (ICT) channels. However, extension services continue to face familiar delivery shortfalls affecting both the national-level extent of Ghana’s cocoa production and the local livelihoods of its producers. This chapter draws on questionnaire data collected during a training workshop for postharvest loss prevention with mostly university-educated farmers to explore how they access innovation and best practices information through new and old technological channels. Key findings indicate that while farmers utilize both old and new ICTs, they still experience the familiar barriers of low agricultural extension agent-to-farmer ratios and shortages of resources. Recommendations include (1) ensuring that the affordances of “old” technologies are amplified rather than replaced by “new” ones, and (2) the use of highly scalable educational animations deployed individually for training or through virtual communities of practices to “bypass” the perennial issue of resource shortfalls in extension services.