Study titled with “Agriculture information needs and seeking behavior of smallholder farmers” were conducted @ Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. The result of the study indicate that most of the relevant information like how to keep their animal and crop healthy, soil test based chemical fertilizer application rate, and market information were not supply on time and in easily understandable form, therefore, repackaging the agricultural information by agricultural knowledge workers is critical. Now our farmers are living in the age of COVID-19 pandemic therefore, In Africa what are the main challenges in integrating COVID-19 pandemic related information to extension campaign?
The biggest problem in Africa is the lack of reliable information being passed on. A lot of people do not know what information is correct and focus on the smaller details rather than the bigger details. Getting people to understand about the disease is a major issue and trying to educate them about what to do and not to do is another challenge as most of them are not educated.
In Africa continents 50000 cases found till date and about 2000 death.Some of the African countries have no medical facilities like ventilators,ICU and medicines the most of the medicines imports from other countries. Since the start of the outbreak the World Health Organization (WHO) has been supporting African governments with early detection by providing thousands of COVID-19 testing kits to countries, training dozens of health workers and strengthening surveillance in communities. 44 countries in the WHO African region can now test for COVID-19. At the start of the outbreak only two could do so.. Countries that reported sharp rises over the past week include Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic, Sao and Principe, Eswatini, and Gabon. Deaths rose by 25% last week, and six countries have very high case fatality rates, with Liberia the highest at 11.4%.
Dear Gebru,
This link below can help you a bit
https://www.devcomsnetwork.org/update/causes-and-consequence-covid-19-information-crisis-africa-and-what-we-can-do-about-it
Madam Farhana Rumzum Bhuiyan, Thank you for your information. I read the material and found it is relevant.
Thank you for sincere reading. My pleasure. If you find it important, you can recommend this to others. Gebru Brhane
It seems that the agenda is so big; In extension campaign as extension agent, you have to have very high and frequent visit of the farmers or users of the agricultural technology. This is mandatory for your extension to be effective in the users. But, as extension agent during the time of Covid-19, there are safety guidelines you and farmers need to abide by. I mean face masks, sanitizers, physical distance and so on need to be implemented, otherwise the campaign be better quit than going into the farmers and affecting their health status with Corona.
So, the challenge could be the inputs in protection of the Corona virus may not be sufficiently available. In addition, from my experience, it takes much to make enough awareness creation about Corona. So, major challenges can be mentioned; shortage of inputs and awareness and the result can be very negative on the production and productivity. We need to work hard.
The most underlying challenge is awareness. People basically lack awareness on the subject matter. The government should work hard on this issue. Extension works should first focus on creating awareness into the general public. Public awareness is key to a success of any extension program. The other challenge is negligence. Lots of dodgy rumors and misinformation related to the pandemic may have contributed to this. Some people just don't care even if they are aware of the issue. So I think these areas need to be worked on by governments and other stakeholders.
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