An overview of social media use in agricultural extension service delivery

Barau, Aliyu Akilu and Afrad, Md. Safiul Islam (2017) An overview of social media use in agricultural extension service delivery. AGRÁRINFORMATIKA / JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL INFORMATICS, 8 (3). ISSN 2061-862X

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Abstract

Social media are contemporary digital communication means comprising various tools that allow interaction among people and information exchange worldwide. Its active users have reached around 3 billion globally as at April, 2017. Since agricultural extension service delivery is primarily a communication process, proper integration of social media is necessary. However, owing to the conducted researches so far the present paper was centred on making an overview of the current perspective of social media and agricultural extension service delivery. Evidences obtained revealed that there are many social media platforms being used in agricultural extension service delivery worldwide with Facebook having highest popularity (64.7%). Most of the agricultural stakeholders using social media are versatile users (33.5%) who usually visit only to find information (75.7%). Many challenges are currently faced in using social media for agricultural extension service delivery; viz. illiteracy, shortage of infrastructure, limited participation, non-institutionalisation, lack of quality control, lack of adequate yardstick for measuring impact and need for gender sensitive approach. In general, social media is gradually appreciated in agricultural extension service delivery, but faced with challenges. Thus, the necessity to put structures in place and required efforts by all stakeholders to ensure good use of itsbenefits.

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