The Farmer Voice in Agriculture Extension Services

Shaun Ferris of Catholic Relief Services in the U.S. will build and test different ways of obtaining feedback from farmers who are using business-focused agricultural services, which his organization provides. This suite of services, including courses on business planning and production, is designed to improve farmer productivity and profitability using a system of web-based applications and mobile phone information delivery. To transfer the management of some of these services back to the local communities, they need feedback on their performance and value in the field. They will build three different methods of obtaining feedback, including SMS polls and direct calls, into their existing service provision system, and evaluate them for efficacy and cost.