E-Farming System Knowledge Transfer: Exploring Experiences in the Philippines and Indonesia

Abstract

Agriculture is complex and hermeneutic having epistemology in communications, innovations, politics, and society. This sector faces challenges in attaining food security due to climate change, low crop productivity and farm income, and aging farmer population. Traditional communication of crop advisories requires more time and has limited reach to farmers compared to digital communications. Although, the advances in digitalization also pose “last mile” challenges. Complexity theory in communication offers pedagogy and practice in E-farming knowledge transfer to smallholder and marginalized farmers. The theory has been utilized in digital social advocacy, neo-diffusionism communication, management, and social science. This study aims to theorize Complexity theory in digital knowledge transfers in agriculture to drive social impact through effective utilization of crop advisories in digital media, mobile applications, and Internet of Things (IoT). Autoethnography, Focus Group Discussion, Key Informant Interviews, and User Acceptability Test qualitative research methods as well as desktop quantitative research were utilized in this study. One hundred (100) farmer respondents and ten (10) key informants were interviewed in the Philippines and Indonesia. Results of the study showed that farmer motivations and needs are vital in digital crop advisory’ success. The PCE (Planning-Communication-Evaluation) model is proposed leveraging Complexity theory. This model covers different interactions of adaptive agents in the social system including content developers, farmer personas, and other agents in the e-farming system. The social, digital adaptiveness, and muted voices of various farmer personas offer discourse to unravel and drive success in e-farming. The research findings also provide pragmatic and pedagogical implications of adaptive agents or nodes in digital farming advisories anchored from Complexity theory. Digital e-farming communication and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) offer a discourse in the production and adaptation of the sociality and reproduction of society through these agents interacting in a fluid or non-linear pattern.