INTRODUCTION
Bangladesh is an agricultural economy country. 16% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) comes from agriculture and almost half of the total population (about 47%) of the working people rely on this sector for food security and poverty alleviation. Controlling the country’s agricultural system is political activism for which the mechanism is a lack of literacy and discretion. 95.9% of rural households are using mobile phones and among them, 31.15% are smartphone users. However, only 11.09% of users have digital literacy knowledge (Source: BIGD, December 2020). The Feed the Future Bangladesh Digital Agriculture Activity is working to build the digital literacy and digital tool capabilities of agricultural value chain actors in the central and southern regions of Bangladesh (FTF Zone) in the use of digital technologies.
This ‘Facilitator’s Guide – Digital Literacy Training’ has been developed to enhance the digital literacy of farmers and value chain actors (farmers, sellers of agricultural inputs, buyers of agricultural produce, and local service providers) engaged in the agriculture sector (crops, fisheries, and livestock) in Bangladesh. Using this guide, trainers can effectively carry out digital literacy training for farmers and agricultural value chain actors participating in the training. As a result, it will help the participants to implement digital agriculture and give a clear idea about the benefits of using digital technology in agriculture.
THE PURPOSE OF THE FACILITATOR’S GUIDE
This guide is designed for facilitators to conduct training Sections for farmers and value chain actors on digital literacy. The Facilitator’s Guide provides Section plans and training instructions and also includes facilitation strategies, lecture texts, and tips for active engagement and eliciting responses. https://agdigitalliteracy.com
Further, the guide provides specialized Section content for exploring digital literacy capacity-building with a range of participants. The facilitators are encouraged to adapt this Section’s content to meet their context and needs (e.g., amount of time, group size, readiness, etc.).
The following aspects have been addressed through this training guide:
- Sensitizing value chain actors to the importance and benefits of digital agriculture and familiarizing them with public and private initiatives for the implementation of digital agriculture.
- Acquainting agricultural value chain actors with digital devices, such as button phones and smartphones, and their relevant features required to access digital agricultural services.
- The usage and benefits of social media platforms in digital agriculture.
- The usage and benefits of agricultural smartphone applications (apps).
- The benefits of mobile financial services (MFS) in daily life and digital agriculture.
- Awareness of digital safety and security while using social media and MFS.
- Empowering trained value chain actors to orient their counterparts and clients/customers on digital agriculture tools.