Linking smallholder farmers to dynamic markets | Blogs Series: Agriculture, ICTs and Youth

Online discussion forums: feedback from a young facilitator

I wish to illustrate the introductory blog by Marina Cherbonnier on information sharing and networking as opportunities to strengthen young professionals in the agricultural sector. I happen to be a facilitator of an online discussion forum hosted by the Dgroups platform, an online tool that has been specifically developed by and for development stakeholders.

The online forum I facilitate tackles the issue of linking smallholder farmers to dynamic markets (LF2M for linking farmers to markets). This discussion forum is held in English and open to all. It currently groups 113 members coming from different countries around the world: farmers from industrialized and developing countries, experts on the subject from public research institutes and international organizations, NGOs active in building business linkages between farmers and markets, etc. Many young professionals have joined this forum where we exchange information on publications, events, best development practices in the field, and sources of information and expertise.

To my mind, this network is particularly rich thanks to the online mixing of field practitioners on the one hand, who are confronted each and every day with development problems in their country, with experts who have a more overall and academic experience of the subject on the other. The interactions are useful for all: field practices that have been successful in one very local area can prove very useful to solve the problems of a farmers’ group trying to develop a sustainable marketing partnership somewhere else in the world. The experts in the network point those in search of solutions to their problem towards those known to have a specific expertise on the subject. As the facilitator of this forum, I am striving to have this Dgroup become a source of knowledge and a genuine network of professional expertise on agricultural product marketing where young professionals can dialogue on an equal footing with some of the most recognized experts in the field who are ready to share their knowledge.

Three lessons I have learned from my young experience as a facilitator of an online discussion forum:
 

1. The more targeted the theme of the forum and the profile of its members, the more useful the discussions will be for a majority of participants; one would not want some members to consider the emails sent by the forum as spam.
2. The most difficult task of the facilitator is to encourage members to ask questions and share the problems they are facing; constructive replies from other members follow suit relatively easy.
3. Even when I am only reading the discussions between other forum members, I can still passively learn a lot while also spotting sources of knowledge and expertise that I may sollicit in future.

Jo Cadilhon

NB: this blog has been cleared for circulation, yet does not represent the views of the French Ministry in charge of agriculture.

Comments are welcomed by clicking on the link below

Jo Cadilhon
Agro-economist – Governance and marketing chains
Centre for Studies and Strategic Foresight
French Ministry in charge of agriculture

http://agriculture.gouv.fr/centre-d-etudes-et-de-prospective

jo.cadilhon@agriculture.gouv.fr