Digital delivery systems for smallholders not reaching enough ASEAN farmers — IFAD
EM - News Moderator 
THE International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Grow Asia said digital delivery systems have not reached sufficient scale to reach enough farmers in ASEAN.
The “Accelerating Smallholder Digital Adoption at Scale in ASEAN: Strategic Pathways” report, launched during the 26th Meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry Plus Three, said more programs are needed to reach food producers who use digital tools.
“This report confirms what our field-level teams have been telling us: the solutions exist, but they are not consistently reaching the farmers and businesses who need them most,” Grow Asia Executive Director Beverley Postma said.
The report is one of the outputs of the Smallholder Economic Empowerment through Digital Solutions project implemented by Grow Asia and IFAD. Funding also came from South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
According to the study underlying the report, most of their 824 respondents from eight ASEAN countries use digital tools for farming advisories, digital payments, and digital marketplaces.
IFAD and Grow Asia believe there is no “shortage of technology” but characterized the problem as an “underdeveloped delivery system.”
Problem areas within the delivery system included: farmers’ economic, behavioral, social and operational conditions that can affect their use of digital tools; feasibility of digital tools in reaching farmers; and the overall capacity of institutions, policies, and public-private sectors in making these digital systems effective.
Priority action areas include investing in digital and data infrastructure, strengthening cooperatives, ensuring inclusive adoption through financing, and risk-sharing systems, and institutionalizing public-private-philanthropy partnerships. — Maria Mikaela H. Tormon
