美国麻省理工学院Frank Schilbach等研究人员，认为充分挖掘数字化发展的潜力或可促进农业发展。这一综述论文2019年12月13日发表在国际学术期刊《科学》上。
研究人员表示，移动电话的迅速普及，为可持续地提高生活在小农户中的20亿人口的农业生产率创造了潜力。荟萃分析表明，通过数字技术提供农业信息可使单产提高4％，采用推荐投入的几率提高22％。收益可能超出信息传输成本一个数量级。具有GPS功能的智能手机的普及可以通过启用自定义信息来增加这些好处，从而激励农民为系统贡献信息。众所周知，信息市场的扭曲限制了这种系统通过纯粹的商业手段达到社会有效规模的能力。
研究人员认为，公众对数字农业扩展的支持显然具有明显的作用，但是农业部设计的信息对于农民来说通常很难理解和使用。实现移动通信系统的潜力需要反馈机制，以实现严格的测试和持续改进。
附：英文原文
Title: Realizing the potential of digital development: The case of agricultural advice
Author: Raissa Fabregas, Michael Kremer, Frank Schilbach
Issue&Volume: 2019/12/13
Abstract: 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.
DOI: 10.1126/science.aay3038
Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6471/eaay3038
