Realizing the potential of digital development: The case of agricultural advice

The rapid spread of mobile phones creates potential for sustainably raising agricultural productivity for the 2 billion people living in smallholder farming households. Meta-analyses suggest that providing agricultural information via digital technologies increased yields by 4% and the odds of adopting recommended inputs by 22%. Benefits likely exceed the cost of information transmission by an order of magnitude. The spread of GPS-enabled smartphones could increase these benefits by enabling customized information, thus incentivizing farmers to contribute information to the system. Well-known distortions in markets for information limit the ability of such systems to reach the socially efficient scale through purely commercial means. There is a clear role for public support for digital agricultural extension, but messages designed by agricultural ministries are often difficult for farmers to understand and use. Realizing the potential of mobile communication systems requires feedback mechanisms to enable rigorous testing and continuous improvement.