Innovation intermediation in a digital age: broadening extension service delivery in Ghana

Samenvatting (Engelstalig):

Africa is experiencing an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution, and new ICTs present opportunities for new ways of sharing information and connecting people. This study identified the contribution of these new technologies to supporting agricultural extension that goes beyond knowledge transfer, in Africa. Zooming into Ghana, the study investigated how new ICTs can facilitate innovation intermediation and help facilitate broader extension service delivery that includes facilitating value chain linkages, multi-actor engagement in needs identification, knowledge integration and problem solving to respond to wider agricultural system constraints. Overall, the study finds that due to a number of social factors only interactive voice outbound, data management and social media messaging technologies have the potential to contribute to select innovation intermediation activities, and these technologies complement human intermediaries (public extension agents) and conventional communication mechanisms (face-to-face settings and radio) in these processes.