International Journal of Education and Development using ICT

International Journal of Education and Development using ICT > Vol. 4, No. 1 (2008)

eLearning for international agriculture development: Dealing with challenges

Buenafe R. Abdon, University of Tsukuba, Japan
Robert T. Raab, UNICEF
Seishi Ninomiya, University of Tsukuba, Japan

Abstract
Agriculture, vitally important for most developing countries, must change to meet today’s needs. It must produce sufficient food to feed an ever increasing global population while raising living standards of the poor and preserving the natural resource base. A key element to achieve these is to encourage the adoption of more “knowledge intensive” sustainable farming practices but this would require that farmers become more knowledgeable about the practices they employ and in how they market their production. eLearning is a potentially viable and cost-effective way for farmers to develop this knowledge but eLearning in agriculture is still not widely practiced. Many of the main challenges are known and a number of organizations have made significant progress in overcoming these. This paper focuses on how two non-profit organizations dealt with challenges associated with eLearning for agriculture and offers a number of recommendations for future efforts.

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