Week 2 - Forum discussion summary
Dear friends,
The 2nd and final week of our forum focused on the operational aspects of impact assessment in the light of the following questions -
- What are the critical operational aspects in the process of capturing impacts of ICT initiatives in agriculture?
- In terms of attributing impact to project activities, what options does the project have and what should it look out for?
- Considering the diffused nature of ICT and the tendency of farmers to share information with one another, to what extent should the project look into, in capturing its ICT initiatives impact?
The following issues emerged as responses to these questions from the e-agriculture community.
Every project should consider key three aspects while capturing impact – clearly identifying and defining target beneficiaries, describing how exactly they are impacted and to what extent the project would capture and record the intended impacts for specific development interventions. Additionally the forum recommended the consideration of another aspect by collecting data from non-ICT groups who use traditional agricultural extension programs or no development programs or no ICT services at all. These are the key aspects that should be considered from the outset of any development project.
The forum discussed the issue of attribution while capturing impact of ICT interventions in agriculture. It was of the opinion that just providing information does not necessarily ensure increased income for target beneficiaries. Availability of the recommended solution, good monsoon rains, government subsidies for irrigation etc. are one of the other factors that influence the issue of ‘attribution’ significantly and thus making it very difficult to measure. So since agriculture is a vast open system, intended impacts could take place due to a combination of attributing factors where access to and use of ICT is just one of many other contributing factors.
The forum suggested that the critical operational aspects of capturing impacts of ICT initiatives in agriculture are related to the methodology of measurements which should be a proven statistic method for qualitative analysis or a true measure of volume of production using quantitative analysis or the mix of the two methods.