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Project properties |
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| Title | Leveraging decision making science to sustain climate- and market-smart mungbean advisories in Patuakhali’s polder communities in Bangladesh
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| Group | Farming Systems Ecology |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24/39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Jeroen Groot |
| Examiner(s) | Jeroen Groot |
| Contact info | jeroen.groot@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2018/12/02 |
| End date | 2020/08/31 |
| Description | Background:
Focusing on highly profitable but weather-risk prone mungbean production in coastal Bangladesh, this project is developing farmer-friendly and demand-driven climate- and market-smart mungbean advisory dissemination systems for smallholder farmers. The problem that lies at the heart of this work is three-fold. (1) Heavy rainfall events can cause significant damage mungbean crops, causing large yield and income losses for farmers in coastal Bangladesh. By integrating and disseminating weather-forecast information, climate-smart advisories for when and how to sow and harvest mungbean can help farmers to escape from some of the climate risks associated with crop production. (2) Both mungbean farmers and traders can also benefit from real-time market price data. In addition to market intelligence on where large blocks of farmers have quality mungbean for sale, this information could lower trading firms’ transactions costs while speeding farm-gate purchase and income generation from farmers. (3) Last but most importantly, despite increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for agriculture in Bangladesh, the core problem addressed by this project the overall limited application of ICTs by farmers. Many examples of ICTs have been developed, but few have significant or lasting impact in Bangladesh. This project is therefore based on the hypothesis that the underuse of ICTs results from insufficient attention to understanding farmers’ preferences and approaches to crop management decision when ICTs are designed, engineered, and developed. In other words, farmers’ needs and feedback in the development of ICTs and information dissemination systems tends to be undervalued during technology design, thereby resulting in products that are of limited use to farmers as end-users. Specific research opportunity: Social network analysis (SNA) is an innovative research method that can be used to study information exchange among individuals, groups, and organizations. Working with collaborators at Wageningen University, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has previously and successfully deployed SNA to understand how farmers receive and horizontally communicate information on agricultural machinery and improved crop management practices in Bangladesh. The resulting data patterns can be articulated as maps of information flow among members of a social network, with individuals, groups, or organizations are be depicted as nodes. The individuals, groups, or organizations that comprise these nodes are strong word-of-mouth communicators, and can be targeted and leveraged by extension services to quicken verbal information delivery to farmers within mungbean growing communities. Not all farmers have access to smartphones to receive climate- and market-smart mungbean advisories. This represents a common pitfall in ICT-based crop advisory systems. To overcome this obstacle, we will use the results from the Social Network Analysis (SNA) to inform extension agents receiving climate and market alerts through mobile phone apps which specific farmers, farmers’ groups, and organizations should be prioritized for communication of advisory information. This is crucial as the SNA results are expected to identify which of types of farmers, farmers’ groups, and organizations are most likely to further disseminate climate advisories throughout farming communities on a peer-to-peer verbal basis, thereby reaching farmers who may lack access to mobile phone services This activity will therefore engage an MSc. student from Wageningen University’s (WUR’s) Farming Systems Ecology (FSE) program. This student will assist in conducting SNA as part of their thesis research. CIMMYT will support and guide this work in Bangladesh, with in-kind technical back-stopping by Associate Professor Dr. Jeroen Groot at Wageningen. Measurable results from this work will include the identification of which farmers, farmer groups, or organizations should be targeted by development and market actors to accelerate transmission of mungbean management and market advisories within polder communities. Timeline: Field work will take place from December to April (2018-19) in Bangladesh What is funded: • Roundtrip airfare to-from Bangladesh • Visa for Bangladesh • Monthly stipend covering room and board (note that conditions in rural Bangladesh are basic) • Funds to conduct surveys and do field research, with logistical and some transport support from CIMMYT |
| Used skills | |
| Requirements | Qualifications:
• Patience and willingness to conduct surveys and field work in a remote location in a challenging but rewarding environment. • Able to work independently and as a member of a team • Willingness to live for extended periods in basic conditions in rural areas • Prior international experience/experience working in developing nations is a benefit. • Strong interest in social sciences linked to agriculture, social network analysis and data visualization, farmer decision making, and agricultural extension • Basic understanding of agricultural climate services is of benefit • Interest in learning to apply new quantitative methods using farm survey data |