Social agriculture refers to a set of practices that support agricultural livelihoods—including information exchange, support mechanisms, and markets—based on the use of social media platforms in countries with a high proportion of their workforce in agriculture. This report asks the questionWhat is “social agriculture” and why should we care? There are numerous examples of people engaged in these practices around the world—from livestock social media sellers in Egypt, to 100,000+ strong Facebook Farming Info groups in Kenya, to multichannel farmer protest movements in India, to livestreaming pomegranate farmers in China.
When exploring The size of social agriculture globally, we find that hundreds of millions may already be actively engaged in social agriculture, and there is huge room for growth into the global agricultural workforce—especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. Many practices of information exchange and marketing are visible in large social-media-based groups. We deep dive into Examining large-scale groups in social agriculture in Kenya to learn more—attempting to navigate from a macro-picture of global usage to a micro-picture of individual users' posts to build a granular understanding of the practices in question. We flag critical constraints of major social media platforms by considering Some algorithms that underpin social agriculture, and also draw on fresh survey data to explore The experience of social agriculture from users in Kenya —drawing from the perspectives of farmers, agronomists, buyers and more.
Finally we compare The story of social versus digital agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa, finding that the former may have already outpaced the latter in scale. We provide some recommendations for how new and existing efforts in digital agriculture — an area that has received significant funding over the last decade — might build on the organic successes of social agriculture.
Get a quick take of our findings in the deck below or dive into the report sections for more detailed findings.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HKmmyzVHg3W70HwIzAcGcDulGhAC2f1ybREHmwjNLEk/edit#slide=id.g100e64eb7ea_1_5
This work is accompanied by a detailed literature review, a qualitative report drawn from in-depth interviews with farmers and others involved in social agriculture in Kenya, and a mini documentary and set of video shorts. With this body of work we hope to jump-start further research and engagement within and around social agriculture—aiming to catalyze the most effective and scalable digital solutions that positively impact the agricultural livelihoods that compose a substantial proportion of the world's global workforce.
What is “social agriculture” and why should we care?
The size of social agriculture globally
Examining large-scale groups in social agriculture in Kenya
Some algorithms that underpin social agriculture
The experience of social agriculture from users in Kenya
The story of social versus digital agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa