Admission number AEM-MOOCs/2022/12/800

Name MBALIRE Arthur

Semester I
Course code AEM 103
Course title Communication for Development
Signature
Date 20/03/2023
QUESTION 9. Explain the role of ICTs in Agriculture Knowledge Management

Introduction
Survival and success of any organization depends on organization’s adaptability to the changing
business environment (Chung et al., 2013). In an information economy, knowledge and its core
competencies are key organizational assets (Valamis, 2022). Knowing how to do things
effectively and efficiently in ways that other organizations cannot duplicate is a primary way of
outwitting competitors. Knowledge is viewed as the fourth production aspect after labour, land
and capital (AFAAS, 2011).

Objectives of the assignment

1. To examine the role ICTs can play in agriculture knowledge management

Literary definition of terms and concepts

Knowledge can be defined as awareness or familiarity gained by experience (of a person, fact, or
thing), Regardless of the source of the knowledge, organizations require systems to support
creation, capture, packaging, distribution, storage, distribution and disposal (Valamis, 2022).

Bhatt, 2000 identifies three components of knowledge and their percentage contribution to
learning: 70% people (attitude, sharing, innovations, skills, teamwork, motivation, organizational
vision and objectives and communities standards); 20% process (knowledge management maps,
workflows, integration, best practices, business intelligence standards; 10% technology (data
stores and formats, networks, internet, data mining and analysis, decision tools and automation
standards).

According to UNESCO Institute of Statistics, Information and Communication Technology

(ICT) is defined as a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to transmit, store,
create, share or exchange information. These technological tools and resources include
computers, the internet (websites, blogs and emails), live broadcasting technologies (radio,
television and webcasting), recorded broadcasting technologies (podcasting, audio and video
players and storage devices) and telephony (fixed or mobile, satellite, video-conferencing, etc.).

There are many different definitions of knowledge management depending on the context in
which the term is used. According to the UN, knowledge management is an integrated,
systematic approach to identifying, managing and sharing an organization’s knowledge, and
enabling groups of people to create new knowledge collectively in order to achieve the
objectives of the organization (UN HR Portal). Knowledge management focusses on learning
from good practices, research/science and experiences.

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Why generate, manage and share knowledge in agriculture? (Spiciakova, 2020)
Globalization, climate change, environmental degradation, migration, spread of diseases and
pandemics and conflicts are changing the direction of agriculture. Good agricultural practices are
quickly becoming obsolete and, therefore, sustaining agriculture requires organizations to
generate, manage and share knowledge. Several issues have arisen out of research-practice gap
in agricultural extension:
1. The linear technology transfer process (generated by research and passed onto the
extension system for adoption by farmers) has failed in tackling contemporary
agricultural development problems and complexity
2. The lack of a close working relationship between national research and extension
organizations and with different farmers and farmer organizations is one of the most
difficult institutional problems confronting many developing nations
3. Technical training on technologies is very important but not enough

Technology can be employed as a platform (defined by Pandey and Dutta (2013) as the
fundamental information technology structure of the organization, including hardware and
software, and internal and external system networks and databases) to support an organization’s
knowledge management strategy. ICT is one of the tools that can be employed to ease the burden
of work and allow resources to be applied efficiently to the tasks for which they are most suited.
ICTs are pivotal in supporting the generation, codification and transfer of knowledge (Cho,
2011).

Information Systems can play a valuable role in knowledge management, helping the
organization optimize its flow of information and capture its knowledge base. The following
ICTs can be employed contribute to an organization’s knowledge management environment
(Chung et al., 2013):
1. Computer hardware and software. For capturing, storing and retrieving information in
an organization.
2. Intranets: Intranets are wide spread across organizations for sharing dynamic
information. Intranet can be divided into two components namely the technology
infrastructure and web server. Technology infrastructure includes universal web server,
thin client, HTML format, IP networks and web server is the repository for content. The
web server and web browser have enabled greater access to information for groups of
knowledge workers and application developers.
3. Document management systems: Repositories for organization’s document or explicit
knowledge in an organization. These systems are mainly used for creating, processing
and reviewing documents. Some of the organizations are approaching organization wide
KM based on document management. Document management systems are vital
knowledge repositories that must be integrated into knowledge infrastructure of an
organization. However they are not used as the complete basis for the knowledge
management system as knowledge workers resist to use highly structured document
management process for creating and processing complex documents.
4. Information retrieval engines. Information retrieval from corporate text repositories or
searching through intranet exist in many organizations as a knowledge silo. Vendors are
continuously adding new features as relevancy ranking, natural language querying,
summarization, preferential searching and others for satisfying the needs of information
seekers and precision of finding the information.
5. Groupware and workflow systems. Groupwares are used in the organization for
communicating and collaborating among workgroups and departments in formal or ad

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 hoc conversations when users cannot communicate in real time. So it can be rightly said
that groupwares are important technology for exchanging and enhancing tacit knowledge.
On the other hand the workflow systems are used for codification of knowledge transfer
processes. As an example proposal generation system can be considered where workflow
system facilitates preparation of structured and ordered information and its review.
6. Brain storming applications. These are used to convert tacit knowledge to explicit
knowledge. These applications are useful knowledge creation tools that help in
categorizing, organizing and identifying knowledge resources.
7. Data warehousing and mining tools. Organizations create data warehouse and provide
the managers with data mining tools to take decisions based on increasingly complex set
of data. KMS provide access to data ware houses by open database connectivity and
structured query language. Data mining tools also provide access to reports to the users
based on subject area which they are investigating.

Other areas, according to Spiciakova (2020), are:

1. Written communication. ICTs have been used to produce written communication or
print media such as (newspaper articles, leaflets, technical notes, guides, brochures and
factsheets) to communicate explicit knowledge.
2. Rural radios, video conferencing and interactive theatre. These are important tools
for communicating explicit and implicit knowledge to groups or individuals in an
interactive manner.
3. TVs and posters. These have been used to communicate captured videos,
demonstrations and case studies in agriculture
4. Sharing or collaboration platforms. These are online interconnected spaces where
different team members from different locations can interact in the same space using
instant messaging and video conferencing. Examples include apps like WebEx,
GoToMeeting, Igloo, Google Docs and Slack. They are useful when groups of people, in
the same or different locations, need a centralized space to plan strategies, share
documents and interact with each other.
5. Social media. Web-based electronic tools that allow users to interact with each other in a
more informal and personal way. Examples include Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and
YouTube. Social media platforms are very useful in customizing innovation messages to
a very specific group or need. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace or
LinkedIn allow people to talk about new ideas and learn using resources, photos, videos,
or links to websites. Tools such as blogging (Blogger, WordPress) and microblogging
(Twitter), video (YouTube) and image (Flickr, Instagram) sharing platforms allow people
to create and distribute content.
6. Mobile phones. Both smartphones (iPhone, Blackberry, Android phones) or low-tech
cell phones with only voice dialing and texting functions, can be used to install dedicated
agricultural apps, WhatsApp groups and m-functions. Mobile phone applications are
especially useful in rural areas where reliable internet connections are not always
available or other ICTs are not a viable option.

Limitations of ICT usage in agricultural knowledge management (Spiciakova, 2020)

Novelty of modern ICT media tools have led to some new limitations, namely: insufficient
connectivity to reliable and relatively fast internet, limited access to hardware tools (many
farmers and extension organizations may lack the capital needed to invest in ICT hardware such
as smartphones, tablets or laptops), and cultural barriers (for example age of farmers may prevent
the optimal use of modern ICT tools and applications)

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Conclusion
Modern organizations worldwide are slowly discovering that controlling knowledge is a major
component for their strategic growth and creating a competitive organization. Therefore, in
order to reap the full potential benefits of acquiring, developing, managing, sharing and
disseminating knowledge in this dynamic environment some changes must be done (Mihaela
and Tarnaveanu (2009). The emergence of ICT in the last decade has opened new avenues in
knowledge management that could play important roles in meeting the prevailing challenges
related to sharing, exchanging and disseminating knowledge and technologies (Rafea, 2009). The
agricultural sector, which employs a quarter of the world’s workers (FAO, 2020), must also
continue embracing ICT to leverage on the benefits of knowledge management as found out by
(Valamis, 2022), i.e. reduced time to find information, reduced time for new staff to become
competent, reduced operational costs and improved customer satisfaction.

REFERENCES:
1. AFAAS. (2011). Concept and Learning Framework for the African Forum for
Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS), workshop proceedings in Kampala, Uganda
and FARA, Accra, Ghana.
2. Bhatt, D. (2000). EFQM Excellence Model and Knowledge Management Implication.
Retrieved from https://eknowledgecenter.com/articles/1010/1010.htm
3. Cho, T. (2011). Knowledge management capabilities and organizational performance: An
investigation into the effects of knowledge infrastructure and processes on organizational
performance. (Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois).
4. FAO. (2020). Statistical Yearbook. Food and Agriculture. Retrieved from
https://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/blog/post/?id=2510
5. Mihaela, M. and Tarnaveanu, D. (2009) Information Technology & Organizational
Knowledge Management. Conference proceedings of the 13th WSEAS International
Conference on Computers. Vol 13. Project: Business Intelligence and Knowledge
Management
6. Pandey, S. C., & Dutta, A. (2013). Role of knowledge infrastructure capabilities in
knowledge management. Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(3),
435-453.https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-11-2012-0365
7. Rafea, A. (2009). Managing agriculture knowledge: role of Information and
Communication Technology. Think piece for CGIAR Sci. forum Workshop on ―ICTs
transforming agricultural science, research and technology generation, Wageningen,
Netherlands. 16–17 June 2009.
8. Spiciakova, M. (2020). The role of Knowledge Management in Agricultural Innovation
Systems. Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions. Retrieved from
https://www.slideshare.net/apaari/the-role-of-knowledge-management-in-agricultural-
innovation-systems-ais
9. UNESCO Institute of Statistics. Glossary Information and communication technologies
(ICT)
10. UNESCO glossary of terms https://uis.unesco.org/en/glossary-term/information-and-
communication-technologies-ict
11. UN HR Portal at https://hr.un.org/page/learning-priorities-knowledge-management
12. Valamis Knowledge Hub, (2022). Human Resources Knowledge Management. Retrieved
from https://www.valamis.com/hub/knowledge-management