"Grameen Foundation, Farm Radio International and other partners implemented the project “Achieving Impact at Scale” from 2015 to 2018 18. The objective of the project is to test the scale up of AgroTech, an ICT platform, in the delivery of agricultural extension and agribusiness advisory servic
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es to smallholders, through private sector value chain players. AgroTech combines interactive radio broadcast and customized field coaching by an agent, bring together information, inputs and markets through private businesses. The goal of the project is to contribute to policy reform of the agricultural extension system with the view of improving responsiveness, accountability and operational sustainability. The project has been implemented through six community radio stations and 260 individuals and entities, including market aggregators, nucleus farmers, individually owned outgrower businesses, small-scale enterprises, credit cooperatives and farmer-based organizations/association. Geographically six regions were covered, involving some 83 districts. Interactive radio broadcast reached and estimated 300,000 smallholders, majority of whom implemented what they heard and gained yield increase more than those not exposed to interactive radio. The agent component emrolled over 14,000 smallholders who also gained in a similar way. Our experience indicate that digital platforms in agricultural extension and agribusiness services delivery can be successful at scale, but requires policy change and support." (Executive summary)
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"The full impact of satellite communication will be realized only when it becomes feasible to spacecast directly into homes, facilitating inexpensive long-distance calls and enabling conferences to be held via telephone and closed-circuit television. Business travel will diminish. Space communicatio
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n, by increasing the flow of information and its speed of availability and by bypassing the editorial process, can produce a less informed, rather than a better informed, public opinion, and may create tension due to hasty decisions. There will be technical problems of frequency allocation, compatibility of standards, and control of programs and legal problems of copyright and protection against commercial exploitation. Major artistic and political events will be viewed world-wide, simultaneously, reducing parochialism and xenophobia. Communication satellites will aid education, especially in developing countries and facilitate interlibrary exchange of information. They should also create a mutual flow of information between the developed and the developing nations. Information from the latter should cover normal developments in the news, not just crisis situations. An appendix lists participants. This document is based upon papers submitted to the UNESCO meeting of experts on the use of space communication by the mass media (Paris, December 6-10, 1965)." (https://eric.ed.gov)
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