 Good morning, everyone. A very warm welcome to everyone on the call this morning. I am Bibi Ali, and in my capacity of support to the FAO Innovation Agenda for the Caribbean, it is really my great pleasure to be moderator for today's forum on the use of digital technologies for the provision of technical advisory services and marketing of family farming products. This morning, I am supported by Dr. Tessa Barry of the Caribbean Agricultural Extension Providers Network, Kayapnet. Today's session is actually the last in a seminar cycle of five events. There have already been two seminars that covered the entire region, two that reviewed Brazil, and this final one focuses on the experiences within the Caribbean region. So the big question today is, why are we focusing on the use of digital technologies for the provision of technical advisory services and marketing of family farming products? All of us here are keenly aware of the critical importance of the agriculture and food sector to our own lives. It's how we live and it's how we improve our standard of living. We are aware of the importance of agriculture and food on our communities, our countries, and the world. According to global statistics, agriculture and food production accounts for 28% of the entire global workforce and includes 570 million smallholder farms worldwide. We know that most of the farmers in our Caribbean region are small farmers and can be categorized as family farms. We are also very much aware that the agriculture and food sector in our region is facing multiple challenges. Today, we are going to look at one of these challenges. We are going to focus on extension and marketing services for Caribbean food producers, which are critical areas in the agriculture and food value chain. Today, especially, we are funneling down into the using digital innovations and technologies which are part of what everyone is calling the fourth industrial revolution to help us find the solutions that we need. It is said that like other sectors, digital technologies are already creating new opportunities to integrate smallholders into a digitally driven agriculture system. This morning, our forum is supported by multiple stakeholders. We have the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, ECA, the United Nations Organization for Agriculture and Food, FAO, the Economic Commission for Latin American, the Caribbean ECLAB, the Latin American Network of Extension Services, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Life, Second Supply of Brazil. We also have with us this morning our very esteemed panel, Dr. Norma Samuel, Dr. Janelle Joseph, Dr. Victor Falguera, Professor Nia Funging, Associate Professor Wale Fung, Dr. Courtney Owens, and Dr. Kurt Delis. Given the wealth of information that will be shared in this very short time, I would like to immediately get into the presentations and welcome Dr. Norma Samuel and Dr. Janelle Joseph who will be presenting jointly. Before I introduce them, this is just a reminder again to follow these Zoom protocols to maintain silence, to put your questions, comments, suggestions, insights into the chat box. Dr. Norma Samuel is an Associate District Extension Officer, the Extension Director, and an Extension Agent with the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension. She holds a master's degree in plant protection and pest management, and a PhD in agricultural education and communication with an emphasis on international extension and a minor in non-profit organizations. Before migrating to the United States, she worked with the Ministry of Agriculture in Antigua and Barbuda in research and in the Plant Protection and Quarantine Unit. She has 18 years of experience as an Extension Agent in the areas of residential and commercial horticulture. She is a master gardener coordinator and is involved with four age youth development. Dr. Samuel has expertise in the areas of pest management, volunteer development, risk management, human and organizational capacity building, and of the extension system in the US and the Caribbean. She has led and all participated in several international extension projects in the Caribbean and Ghana, and has over 300 publications, and is the recipient of numerous professional awards. She is here this morning as the current chair of the Caribbean Agricultural Extension Provider's Network Carenet, and President of the Board of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services, GFRAAS, to deliver the presentation, Digitalization of Extension in the Caribbean, Challenges and Opportunities. She is joined by Dr. Janelle Joseph, Co-Chair of Carenet. Dr. Joseph is also an Agricultural Extension Instructor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension in the Faculty of Food and Agriculture, University of the West in Leicester, Kustin. With this introduction, I hand you over now to Dr. Samuel and Dr. Joseph. Thank you. Thank you so much, Ms. Ali, and thank you everyone for joining us today. And as Ms. Ali said, we will be speaking to you on Digitalization of Extension in the Caribbean, Challenges and Opportunities. Before I get into the depth of our presentation, I wanted to give you a background on GFRAAS because some of you may not be familiar with the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services. And GFRAAS, as it's called for short, is a registered non-profit based in Switzerland. And the goal of GFRAAS is to build individual and organizational capacity of extension services across the globe. And what we aim to do with that work is that we're hoping that in building the capacity, they in turn will help farmers and other stakeholders to improve their livelihoods and we can see economic growth within the different countries. GFRAAS operate under 18 networks. And so you see that we have a presence all across the globe. And so this presentation that we're doing today, it's hosted by RELICIAE, the network that's for Latin America and the Caribbean, and KayetNet falls within the RELICIAE network. GFRAAS, along with its network, they're main areas of focus and knowledge management, professionalization of extension and advocacy, and then the fourth focus area for GFRAAS is helping to build the capacity of all these networks across the globe. So that is some background on GFRAAS. In preparing for this presentation, we decided to reach out to some of our colleagues within KayetNet, which is the Caribbean Agricultural Extension provider's network, to get some input from them regarding digitalization of extension. So we asked them a few questions. We wanted to see from their perspective how they would define digitalization of extension. We wanted to get information on what they were doing in terms of digitalization of extension prior to COVID and during COVID. Do they have any policies supporting digitalization in their country and what challenges and opportunities exist? So we spoke to representatives from Antigone, Barbuda, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Haiti and Guyana. We're also gonna tell you a little about digital penetration in the Caribbean because that is important when we talk about digitalization. And we're also gonna share with you digitalization at the level of KayetNet. So this chart here shows you digital penetration in the Caribbean. And what that simply means is what's the percentage of the population that have access to internet services? So you can see that it ranges anywhere from 32% in Haiti all the way to 90% in Anguilla. So across the Caribbean on a whole, it's an average 50% digital penetration. And the source for this information is the internet world stats as of March 18th, 2021. So the first question we asked our colleagues was to define digitalization of extension. I'm not gonna go into these different definitions that they gave, I'm not gonna read them, but I'm gonna pick out some key terms that they use. And so they mentioned social, using social media platforms, having infrastructure to disseminate information. So they're sharing information. They're also looking at it as a way to facilitate their work in conducting extension methods. And also they're using it with staff and clientele. And some of them went into depth in terms of some of the tools that you would actually use. So you'll need internet service, computers, smartphones, digital cameras and things of the like. And very important is that one participant noted that you're providing farmers useful information. And so your farmers and other stakeholders, they get bombarded by a lot of information daily. So it's important that we're using these digital tools to provide relevant and updated information to farmers. It's also used as a tool for making decisions at the organizational level and creating farmer databases and also database pertaining to production practices. So we did get some good feedback pertaining to their definitions of digitalization. In terms of what they were doing with digital agriculture prior to COVID, it was minimal. And so they were using WhatsApp, phone calls, emails to communicate with farmers and they use it to complement their face-to-face delivery methods because the face-to-face delivery approach is very important to us in extension. Some examples that we wanted to highlight from the information that we gathered is that Trinidad and Tobago representative mentioned that they were trying to build a web presence prior to COVID. And I'll talk to you in the next slide about some of the things that they've done. Jamaica for many years, all of their officers have laptops and smartphones for updating farmers. And they've also created a farmer database that their extension officers can use out there in the field. In Jamaica, for example, they also use digital tools for pest management. So the Beet Army Worm is a pest of economic importance in Jamaica. And depending on weather conditions, the Beet Army Worm population can spiral out of control. So they use this as a way to alert farmers and also the extension professionals of practices that they need to implement when certain weather conditions are in place. Now, during COVID, the countries intensified their use of digital extension. And so, yes, we all had grandiose plans of implementing digital extension methodologies, but with COVID, it forced us to propel into offering digital extension services. So they use Zoom and Teams for training both staff and farmers. They intensified their use of WhatsApp and various social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook. And they also use it for immediate response to clientele questions through virtual plant clinics. And when you go to the Trinidad extension website, for example, you see a chat pops up there and you can chat with someone in real time. So that is really cool that even though you don't have that face-to-face interaction, you are able to have someone that you can communicate with in real time. This sort of graphic on the left is taken from the Antigua and Barbuda Ministry of Agriculture page. And they have done an excellent job during COVID to update farmers and also the general public of different events that they have, different production practices. And so they constantly post on this website. So these are two examples of things that are being done really well. In terms of policies supporting digitalization, most of the countries that we spoke with did not have any policies pertaining to digitalizing of extension, but they realized in order for this to be an extension methodology that they can use ongoing, they need supporting mechanisms for digitalization. The representative from Haiti mentioned that due to the lack of policies, it hinders the growth of extension in Haiti. And Trinidad was the only country that mentioned that they had a national goal of digital transformation written into the policies of the various ministries. In Antigua and Barbuda, they are using a lot of digital extension methods and getting smartphones for their officers. However, they do not have a policy pertaining to digitalization. So I'll now turn things over to Dr. Joseph. Yeah, okay. Thank you Norma. So hello everyone. I'm gonna share on the challenges which would have been shared with those who we would have interacted with in terms of our discussion to get a feel as to where extension is in terms of getting digital ready. So some of these challenges mentioned, I would say represent typical challenges across maybe the globe in terms of transitioning to digital means of service delivery. One of the interesting things that stood out was that the availability and access to mobile networks in the sense of the digital divide that stood out because we always have the view that everyone has access to a device, a smartphone, a tablet as the case may be. However, some persons may have more sophisticated devices than others. All right, so that kind of poses a challenge in terms of accessibility to various mobile networks. Despite the region having a 50% digital penetration score, there are some instances as well where we do have connectivity issues in terms of mobile networks not functioning as well as they should in certain regions, particularly rural areas per se. And the challenge of ICT literacy on both the part of the farmer as well as the extension agent. In the region, we have an aging farming population and interestingly, more extension agents as well. They are also a bit more on the mature side. All right, so their literacy levels for them to transition from these traditional approaches to extension to more digital approaches, it requires training, it requires a lot of unfamiliarity getting themselves familiar with the use of the tools with the use of the technology. And also with it brings the challenge of the willingness to utilize these technologies. One of the representatives, which we would have had discussions with, shared that farmers prefer having the face-to-face interaction with them rather than the use of digital approaches to extension, particularly because that's what they are mostly accustomed to. They feel more comfortable that way. All right, so despite now the transition to minimize the face-to-face interaction due to the physical and social distancing protocols, there is still that need for the face-to-face interaction. Of course, with the digital implementation, it poses the challenge related to funding as well. Purchasing devices, making sure that the technology and infrastructural support systems are there. It's quite costly, all right? And if we wanna have effective digital implementation, the challenge of funding remains there. Okay, yes, sorry. So this is a brief snippet from a study that myself and colleague Dr. Barry conducted early last year when we were all plunged into the whole minimization of interaction and so due to COVID, we did our rapid study looking at the extension response within the region to cope with the current situation at the time. And one of the questions we asked extension agents was what sort of challenges they personally experienced in terms of delivering their extension services to their clients? And interestingly, the two main challenges that presented itself was that of restricted movement and also working restrictions, all right? A lot of the countries would have been thrown into lockdowns and curfews and limited mobility. So that hindered or that caused a challenge for the extension agents to be able to get out into the field and share with their clients. Interestingly, technological limitations, the agents at the time, they didn't perceive that as a major challenge and it only featured as a very minimal amount of percentage in terms of the challenges. However, within the whole realm of their discussion of these challenges, we could have picked up some of the instances where technological limitations would have presented itself. So you can go on to the next slide. Okay, so some of the comments or respond on quotes from that survey, I'll just point out to maybe point three under working restrictions, all right? There are a lot of social distancing which would have affected the working relationship and the eye contact with the farmers. So this in itself adds to the challenge that we identified a few slides back, whereby the willingness to utilize this digital mode of service delivery because of the normal, because of the level of comfort the client may have in terms of that physical interaction with their extension agent and the like. In terms of the restricted movement, not being able to move to the farm and make field visits so you do not get to physically see what's happening on the field. All right, so if you move on to the next slide, please. Okay, so some additional challenges as well. Handling high volume of persons in online classes and in terms of follow up paperwork. Now this challenge specifically featured from discussion with our colleague from Trinidad and Tobago wherein, they have transitioned a lot of their courses, training courses to online mode. And with that, the challenge that presented itself we mentioned was that within half an hour or within the first 30 minutes of advertising, this training course or the training course going live as the case may be, it would have been subscribed to as much as 1200 persons. All right, so the challenge in itself comes with now having to manage this large volume of persons to ensure that the participative training that they access the necessary certificates that would have follow in that case. And also, they also pose the challenge of because it's on the digital or social media platform, there would have been open up to persons from outside of the region also joining in. So in terms of logistically, logistic symptoms of the digital managing of all these various participants that came up as well. In terms of fluctuating networks, sometimes in some areas, we have network disconnections and so, so that's also a challenge. The low incomes of farmers to purchase these devices to get themselves digital already. And also in terms of the extension agent as well, some of them would have mentioned that they had to, in cases where work phones were not provided for them, they had to fit that cost out of their pockets as well. All right, and we have lack of policies to enhance ICT development in rural areas as well as lack of necessary skills to utilize on these technologies. So we move on to the other side, please. So out of these challenges, we identified as well some opportunities. So there is a lot of possibility despite the challenges that were identified. One of the main opportunities was that this transitioning from the analog system to digital systems or digitization, all right, that's a very big opportunity for us here in the region, especially in terms of extension. It minimizes the, or it should minimize the use of the traditional paperwork. All right, so that's an opportunity that we identified and it's an opportunity that we look forward to. Coming out of Guyana, our colleague mentioned that FAO at present is engaged in a pro-project with the rice board and those in the rice industry to transition their reports from the analog mode to digital mode. So that's a very good opportunity in the region. And other opportunities that of course, saving. Utilizing digital tools, digital platforms, it minimizes the need for expensive travel. All right, I mean, right now we are here in this webinar from all parts of the world. Okay, and yeah, it probably didn't cost us much to log in or to be able to access this webinar. So that's an opportunity as well. And it can all go well for extension within the region. There's a lot of opportunity for retraining of staff as well as stakeholders. If we have to consider the transition again from analog to digital, right? It means that we know we have to train our staff, train our extension service providers to be able to convert all their training programs et cetera to fit a digital environment. And it augurs well for rebranding and repositioning extension, right? You know, a lot of youth can seem to encourage youth to enter into agriculture as well as extension. You know, we have challenges well in the region with, you know, as I mentioned before, no mature extension agents, all right? So to facilitate the continuity of it, you know, if we highlight the use of digitization, digital tools, and so it can encourage or, you know, persons to want to enter into, you know, this profession and facilitate enough collaboration as well. It breaks down those spatial walls, those geographic boundaries, all right? And we can be able to collaborate with various experts and so throughout the world. Kaya Net, for example, you know, we are a network of extension service providers as well as various agricultural scientists who are located all over the world, okay? So, and we interact digitally. So that's a good opportunity for extension in the region. There's also the opportunity of drafting of policies regarding digitization. At this point in time, many of the ministries in the region, there's no set policy for digitization and extension per se. However, they have recognized the need for it more so now. So it's a very good opportunity for us to be able to draft policies that could represent digitalization of extension within the region. And coming up from Haiti, you know, we have a very highly pluralistic extension system. They are quite fragmented, all right? So with digitalization, there's the opportunity as well to link these various actors. Next slide, please. So with Kaya Net, you know, how have we been utilizing digitalization? Initially, we started off having our monthly meetings and so by a Skype, okay? But, you know, in 2019, we have transitioned to more use of Zoom. Just February of this year, we concluded our monthly webinar session whereby we had training sessions for our extension agents throughout the region every month on our Wednesday. And that was conducted digitally as well through the use of the Zoom platform, our executive and membership meetings. We utilize global expertise for training. We conducted information gathering, data gathering, through the use of various survey monkey and quality exam as well as Google forms, for example. And we share a lot of information on best practices. We also utilize WhatsApp. Some challenges that presents itself from Kaya Net's perspective. To conduct these webinars, you know, there's the need for having more than one person to adequately manage the technology, all right? So that in itself is a challenge. One person, you know, cannot effectively manage the technology. There are some issues in terms of connectivity within the region as well. We have some time zone issues or time zone challenges. Okay, Jamaica, for example, they are one hour behind our regular time. If we have training with somebody who's joining in, let's say from Africa or from London, for example, they may be five hours ahead. So the time zone thing that causes a challenge as well. And of course, language barriers, you know, French and converting many of our training modules or programs from English and to French or Spanish, you know, to post digitally, that also is a challenge there. Right, so well, that would bring me to the end of, you know, sharing on the challenges and the opportunities. And I would really like to share my thanks with those who would have participated in giving feedback to contributors this morning's presentation. And yeah, if you have any questions, we'll be happy to answer them as best as we can. So thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Samuel and Dr. Joseph, for that very informative presentation. I think it gave us all a very good foundation to build on for the rest of this presentation. You clearly identified that it's about an average of 50% digital penetration across the region at the lower end with Haiti, and then there's the higher end probability at 90%. You, apart from the hard data, you were really able to capture the values, the attitudes and the belief systems of the farmers themselves and identified that there were basically minimum standards already operational, but we really do need to create an enabling environment for this to grow further. So thank you very, very much for that informative presentation. We will go straight into our second presentation with Dr. Falguera. Dr. Falguera holds the PhD in Agriculture and Food Science and Technology, as well as the PhD in Engineering and Advanced Technologies from the University of Barcelona. He is the author of more than 40 indexed journal articles and several extension contributions. He was twice awarded with the National Prize for Excellence in Academic Performance in the Ministry of Education of the Spanish Government in 2006 and 2008. And he also received a PhD Extraordinary Award for his first doctoral thesis in 2012. He was a counselor for education between the years of 2011 and 13 and also mayor between the years of 2013 and 2018 of Albertaric in Spain. He is a founding partner of the company's ACUS International, East Stratos Geosystems and in-app tech automation. Dr. Falguera is a freelance consultant and lecturer on innovation-based territorial development strategies and policies and research development and innovation management for the agri-food sector with a broad experience in Europe and Latin America. He's also a part-time lecturer at the University of La Gueda and a member of the managing board of the Official Association of Agriculture Engineers in Catalonia. He is here with us this morning in the area of research and innovation management for the agri-food sector and territorial development from the University of La Gueda, Spain. The specific topic this morning is the key aspects for designing successful digital tools. Welcome, Dr. Falguera. Welcome, everyone. Good morning. Thank you for your kind presentation. And well, before getting started, I'd like to send a big hug to our colleagues in St. Vincent and the Grenadines hard times that they are going through. And I'd also like to thank and acknowledge the work of the international community in helping these colleagues, these people to overcome this situation as soon as possible. And well, obviously I'd always like to thank the organizing committee of this webinar for your kind invitation. It's always our pleasure to participate and to share our thoughts on the work that we do. So as we can all together help farmers to have things a bit easier. So let's go to the topic for today. In the next few minutes, I'm gonna try to stick to the time although it's a little hard for me sometimes. We're gonna take a look at these key aspects that we must consider when designing a digital tool for extension based on some of the issues that we have seen in the previous presentation, very, very nice presentation indeed by Dr. Samoan and Dr. Joseph. Okay, let's see. Okay, so first of all, well, firstly we have to define what we consider to be a successful tool. What does successful mean when it comes to a digital tool? Obviously to answer this question, we have to describe we must have clearly in our mind we just the purpose of the tool. What's it for? What do we want to achieve by making it available by designing the tool? It may seem quite an obvious thing but that's the main point that we have to keep in our mind throughout the design process because if we don't keep this in our mind things can come difficult or we can be misled at certain points. And how can we measure if we are successful? Which are the metrics to say so? The number of downloads, the number of farmers using the tool and what happens with these farmers that only try the system once and afterwards they erase the application, for example. We can be misled in these metrics if we only consider the number of farmers that are using our tool. And moreover making the users use the system does not guarantee, does not mean that the goal that this purpose is fulfilled. Obviously it's an essential step up to a certain point and I'm gonna explain this further with an example later that we are going to see but it seems that making the farmers use the system is a first essential step to be successful. So the ultimate goal is not to have a lot of farmers using the system. This is only a way to achieve the purpose. The ultimate goal is to fulfill this purpose. The ultimate goal is, for example, can be reducing the impact of pests and diseases at a certain area. Is this ultimate goal saving water? Is it helping farmers to develop soil management strategies? For example, is it a combination of some of these points? Is it communicating or establishing or fostering this communication between the advisor and farmers? Which is the goal? We have to keep everything in our mind. So let's go to the purpose itself. And this plan, this way of thinking leads us to focusing on this purpose. What are we really providing with the extension tool that with this digital tool that we are designing? How are we helping farmers in their day to day? We know that most farmers rarely search for technical advice from their initiative. So how can we reach these farmers? If we cannot reach the farmers, if we cannot reach them, we cannot help them. So the tool will be completely useless if we cannot reach the farmers. Even if it's technically or academically, even very accurate, if we cannot make the farmers use them or if we cannot reach the farmers, the system will be completely useless. Look, if we carry out a survey asking farmers what do they need, what will they say? Probably we may agree that most cases, most of the answers will be related with money, with resources. We need inputs at affordable prices. We need to sell our products at higher prices. But later, regarding the digital systems, digital platforms, we see that cost-saving oriented tools are not the top-ranked ones. Somehow we have one of these mismatches here. And taking a closer look, after years working on this, our experience says that regardless of the technical scope, regardless of the first-level immediate purpose, time and confidence must be in our value proposition. Tools providing farmers with time, saving them time, and with confidence, making them feel safe with their management decisions are always the most successful ones. So if you have to keep just one idea from this presentation or from my presentation today, this is the one, focus on providing time and confidence. Everything else comes after that. We talk, for example, a lot about usability. Usability is indeed very, very important. But for example, during the harvesting season, we know that the farmer won't have time or definitely he will not want to use a digital tool. He's concentrated on harvesting. And so then what's the importance of usability if the farmer doesn't even lock into the system? So this is why we have to concentrate on these two crucial issues, which are providing farmers with time and providing them with confidence on their decisions, which is, in fact, one of the baselines of providing extension services. So we could finish this presentation here. Obviously we won't. So let's take a closer look at a few highlights on how we address the design process. Traditionally, we say that digital tools development can be driven by two main forces, these two main forces, the will of solving a problem for a certain group of population, farmers in our case, or new technology that arises and to which we want to search for new applications. So the market need comes first or the technology comes first. And seeing what I said so far, you can already think that the first one must be always preferable, focusing on this market pool in terms of market science. But the interesting point here is who carries out each kind of innovation in each one of the cases? Who is involved in each step of the innovation process in each case? Let's keep this question in the air, okay, for a moment. And I'm going back to this later after reviewing other few issues. Once we have analyzed so far our motivation and our main drivers, put it this way, we have to set our scope. And this is also very important. We have to set a particular and a specific scope and have it very, very clear. Although we're talking about tools for extension today, the approach is the same and it works that we use when specifically talking about precision agriculture. And why is it important and why is it so important? Well, first of all, there are not isolated decisions in farm management. Every action, every single action in farm management is engaged within a process, which is in fact the crop cycle, okay? So for example, if we make a tool to ease decision making, we must consider how and when the data we need to take the decision will be gathered and validated. And what's even more important, we must consider how the farmer will later apply the recommendation. So everything is engaged. And another thing that's even more and more important every day, things are changing a lot, lately when it comes to digital tools. Connections between systems, between platforms are more and more common every day. So when designing your tool, when designing this kind of digital tools, think about how you will integrate data coming from other tools and think about how you're going to create your API to send the data from your tool to other systems, to other platforms. This is essential nowadays. Close platform have a little future to put it this way, okay? So even if you're not planning to reach the other steps yourself, if you're not planning to expand the focus of your digital tool to other steps in this cycle, you have to put it this way. You have to think this way. Design the system as if you would and this will open a huge way of possibilities. And afterwards, we're going to see also an example to say this or to see this in a specific way for a specific tool. So every one of these blocks that we've seen has its own complexity. And today we don't have time to address all of them, but let's take at least a closer look at the data gathering step, which is frequently the most difficult one together with validation in certain cases. If depending on the way in which we gather data, the validation process is later more difficult to print this way, okay? And this is because a lot of technology is better every day. The best available technology is not always available everywhere or for every farmer. And we've seen some of these reasons in the previous presentation or simply, although it may be available, it's not the best choice for a specific case or for a specific use. For example, sometimes the best choice for gathering data on how a pest is evolving in a certain area. For doing so, we can design a simple form to locate the plot and introduce the trap count or the affectation observations. And the farmers may be a survey of Honke as Dr. Joseph just said, introduce the location of the farm and the observations of the affectation or the incidence of a pest. And later we can process this information. And if we have a lot of farmers using the system and here it's indeed one of the crucial aspects and if we have a good validation system, because you know that this kind of gathering data is somehow dangerous, this will be the best choice because this will be very, very easy for everyone. And this is not rocket science. This is not a complex technology. And this allows me to explain that sometimes the simplest technology is the most useful technology. That sometimes collaboration beats technology. We have nice examples in different countries. For example, in Latin America, in Colombia, we have nice examples of software, digital tools that work this way. The point here is that the farmer must receive good return after spending his time feeding the system. So if the farmer feeds the system, he will only dedicate his time to feed the system if he has the good return for spending this time. And let's now bring a closer context to the Caribbean. Usually when we think about the special situation of the small island countries, three main issues arise. Obviously we've seen a more thorough approach in the previous presentation, very, very nice approach indeed. But we are now focusing in three main aspects that I'd like to comment very, very briefly. These are the long distances between farmers and advisors. So it's not easy to meet. Secondly, the desegregation. So we have not a large group of farmers together, which makes it difficult, for example, to manage training sessions. And the lack of connectivity, which in fact is a common thing in rural areas throughout the world. For example, here in Spain, we have severe connectivity problems in rural areas. And this is a common fight through the years. And it's a common thing in rural areas. Regardless the country or even the region in the world. So which are the answers that we may find here? But well, before that, I'd like to state that in the last year, and this is why these are no longer your specific challenges, the pandemic has put all of us in front of similar challenges. For example, here in Spain, we are closer to each other, but we cannot meet. And we cannot carry out face-to-face training sessions. And this has been also a big challenge for us. And this is in turn completely new for us. So now we have to face these similar challenges, but we have to get started in thinking of how we can solve these problems when we cannot meet face-to-face when as Dr. Joseph also said, farmers definitely prefer. So how can we address these issues? How can we find an answer to these issues? And here we have some clues. We have proven that the benefits of the collaborative data gathering are essential for this. Collaborative data gathering, when we cannot meet, takes another dimension. We've also understood that we must take advantage of the tools that farmers already use. For example, WhatsApp Telegram, Dr. Samuel already talked about that also, and also Dr. Joseph. There are farmers that don't want to receive anything by mail, and you won't change that regardless the intensity or regardless what you can provide them. You won't be able to change that. Regarding this also, it's very interesting to see the example of the ICAS AgriX app, which we will see later today. It's a very, very nice initiative and a very nice example on how to take advantage of Telegram to foster this communication and to take advantage of the digital tools. Moreover, the smartphone-based tools are the absolute priority, but they should be preferably multi-platform. This brings a number of advantages. It makes things easier for system managers, for example. And I'm not addressing here the question about web-based systems or native app systems, okay? We can talk about it later, but this would take some more time. But anyway, offline capability is mandatory. Offline capability is mandatory if the system has to be used in the field. So it must not be only web-based, okay? Additionally, the digital tools should be launched together with multi-level training and extension structures. And this is the answer to this application, and this allows taking advantage, the best advantage in fact, of the human capabilities of the human resources that we have. What does it mean? What's the meaning of multi-level training and extension structures? We have to ensure capillarity because if we have to reach the same number of farmers that we were reaching before the COVID strike, we can only do so if we train additional people to help us in doing so, okay? So this is a very interesting thing that at least here we are starting to focus on since this is the pandemic strike, okay? So, well, so far we've been talking about what, okay? We focused on the tools, on what they do and on their properties and on how they are useful to fulfill a purpose, okay? Let's now have a very brief note on the process. Not on the tool, but on the process. And I'm not gonna spend much time on this because it would need an entire presentation, but I think I must definitely introduce the way of open innovation, which is from my point of view, the best answer to the problems of the classical market-oriented design or at least or considering only that market pool design that we mentioned before. And as we left in the air previously in the traditional way of thinking, in the best case scenario, farmers are consulted in the initial phase of the design and they later have no water contact with the tool until it's delivered. After they are consulted at the first designing phase, the RDI staff, both public or private, do their job and the technological companies also do their part. But there's a little interaction between the different kinds of actors. So we have to change that. If we want to achieve successful tools in that mean of successful that we want, I mean to fulfill the ultimate purpose, we must engage farmers together with the other relevant actors of what we call this kind of Alex in every stop of a process. We must shift from this linear process towards an iterative process represented in this spiral. And this is not easy, but we have specific ways to do so and we are in our day-to-day gathering more experience about how to do so. The interesting thing here is that this approach allows not only developing the specific tools, but also acting on the entire scenario and developing the changes in the systems that we need to set up an entire ecosystem that favors the development of these new tools that we want to be successful in pursuing that goals. And I'm briefly coming back to this later, but as I said, this would require an entire presentation. So let's take a look at three different examples that go from low technology to high technology in these different degrees. And these different kinds of example with different degree of complexity also have been designed following these guidelines that I just reviewed in the last minutes. We are not reviewing the three tools or the three initiatives totally. We will only focus on how some things that we've set so far are applied in these tools. The first case is this. First case is Woteman Pro. This is a tool from MAKIS International which is the main company with which I am working. This tool won the first prize to technological development three years ago in the Yale-Devergutl Affair, which is one of the most important events in Spain. This system has several features, but it mainly calculates every week the needed irrigation dose for each irrigation sector and how it should be split. I mean, once per day, twice per day, in four courses per day and so on. It works using weather forecasts and self-developed algorithms and databases. And it's also a communication system between the advisor and the farmer. So if the advisor performs a field visit, afterwards he can go to a platform and through this system, send weekly recommendations to the farmer in a different way or separately than it works with the irrigation recommendation. The first thing to be commented here is that it's a very, very subtle tool. You have one single login page, but depending on the user profile, the tool is different. It's multi-platform, so the farmer can do the setup comfortably in the computer, sitting on the couch after having dinner and he only has to do it once and he can do it at home very comfortably and he has, where he has time to spend thinking of how to enter the information and how to later use the system. And later in the field, he can see the recommendations, even if there's no network connection with the mobile app. So this multi-platform device works this way. The system calculates every week the recommendation, sends it to the system to the user when there's an available network and afterwards the farmer in the field, even if he has no network, he can also access to the recommendations. And here we have in the lower part of the slide the strengths of the value proposition. But as you see, we have two different kinds of them, two different kinds of strengths. At the left, you see the technical ones, the technical strengths, which would be the strengths that we would announce publicly in the marketing session when selling the system, okay? You know how it works. These technical strengths are related to accuracy, to usability are related to this engagement with the following actuation step that we saw before. But the right, you see the real ones. The real ones lead us to the core of the issue. It provides time and confidence. This was in fact the initiative, the tool that allowed us to verify this theory, provides time and confidence because the farmer doesn't get annoyed thinking of this crucial decision, especially in the core moments of the season. Secondly, it speaks the farmer's language because the dose is translated into irrigation time, which is the way farmers talk about it, although we know that technically it's not that correct because it's dangerous. You know, the different irrigation systems can lead to different irrigation doses with the same time, so it's dangerous. But it's their language. So we adapted with the, obviously with the needed information introduced comfortably by the farmer. We translated this output to their language. And lastly, a farmer can use the system even without logging in. And how's that possible? How can a farmer use the system even without logging in? Because as we know that as I just said, during harvesting season, farmers will not enter the system. They will not definitely use the system. Once the setup is done, they go on receiving weekly recommendations. The system recalculates and sends the information every week without the need of the farmer entering the system. So this is, from my point of view, definitely one of the key issues of the platform. The second example is the status platform. It's a data integration platform, mainly based on remote sensing, although it provides a number of different functions with different kinds of technologies. And the main thing, it's been designed to break adoption barriers of these technologies, mainly to break the adoption barriers of remote sensing. It's available anywhere in the world, and the system has been made to give a fast response and a fast implementation anywhere in the world. It has fully automated searching, downloading, processing, cutting and plotting processes with plot-based analysis, with a thorough set of benchmarking tools and so on. But this is not the point for today. It has an API to send everything to other platforms, the maps, the calculations, the raw data, everything to third-party platforms. In fact, this API works so well that it has become the core business of the company, providing processed data to others, to other platforms, to other digital tools. So here's another important message. Be open when you design your digital tool. It has no sense at all in trying to close the business for your digital tool. In this case, as the company went on opening and opening the availability of the data to third parties, even business went better and better, okay? It has the offline working app also to manage everything in the field. You can, for example, take a picture in the field and afterwards when the farmer has a network connection, the system sends it to the platform, you can see the web-based environment later which is more comfortable for the eyes, okay? And it's easy to use and it's very affordable. I don't like talking about prices because I'm here today to share thoughts and to share knowledge, but please forgive me because in this case, this is the only way to tell this and this is the only way to see this. This platform offers weekly new maps starting at 2.8 US dollars per actor a year. So this is breaking barriers with no minimum. This is working barriers. This is breaking also the image that remote sensing is only for big farmers that remote sensing is only for big advisors. This is not that way anymore. And this is not the only example of a remote sensing tool that is nowadays very, very, very affordable. This has changed a lot. But the most interesting thing is even not the price. Most interesting thing is that it's conceived to provide the information a farmer or an advisor needs at every moment. And let me explain this a little bit further. If I'm an advisor managing hundreds of plots from my farmers, seeing all the internal variability of all the plots every week is completely useless. I don't have time to take a look at the internal variability of all the plots of all the farmers that I manage every week. So the system has a solid color device a solid color feature that makes things very easy. It works as a traffic light, for example. For example, if you see a plot in red, the message is run. And by run, I mean call the farmer and say him that something's happening here that something's happening in that plot. A look, go to the field and take a look at that plot because the system says that something's happening here. And this is taking somehow complex technology and making every time more and more steps on simplification until the state in which the system is really useful for farmers with very, very low baseline formation or training for advisors that are managing lots of plots every week. And finally, let me mention another example. This pilot that we developed two years ago together with the Mobile World Capital Foundation, BodaFone and Cisco in our experimental field. This is the high technology example that I mentioned before. We're going through from the low technology example up to the high technology one. And although this is in fact very far from what we are discussing today, I know that. But I'm mentioning this case to show that the same principles can be applied to very high technology and to show how this can be applied also to low technology and to high technology solutions that only connect the dots between the already existing technology to create new solutions. What we did here was designing a tool to ease workforce training and workforce supervision based on the advantages of the 5G connectivity because it was the core or the reason to pay for this pilot, okay? The advantages of 5G connectivity. A worker in the field and an advisor in the office were connected and the advisor was providing real time on video notation to ease the operation of pruning fruit trees. And why do we mention this today? Well, because we prioritized an operation that annoys the farmer because labor force is difficult to train and it's difficult to supervise and this really annoys farmers. And advisors need tools to ease their job. Advisors need tools that make it possible to reach farmers at any time, wherever they are. And again, technology must be at the service of farmers and also at the service of advisors to fulfill their role, okay? And to finish the presentation, let me just make a brief reference to a more general issue. Everything we've seen today in terms of methodology is far more powerful, okay? Starting from this open innovation approach we mentioned earlier, we can take advantage of the communication and collaboration tools to foster this collaborative bottom-up development strategies. I definitely loved the moments in the previous presentation from doctors Samuel and Joseph because both of them mentioned that it's essential to go from the urgent immediate measures to a strategy, to our overall strategy. Having a strategy is mandatory for everyone. Otherwise we go on providing solutions that may work but have no path at all, okay? This approach is very, very powerful because this allows the territorial needs, what we call the demand-driven innovation to meet the impact-driven innovation, which is the one resulting from top-down public policies and public strategies. And of course, this is far more powerful but it's also far more complicated. It needs working on actors mapping and on actors engagement, on public bodies commitment, on gathering from local up to international support and large, et cetera, to articulate what we call a shared agenda for systems change. This, in fact, is being most of my job during the last years. So I would definitely be more than happy to talk about this but it's not today's topic so we'll leave it for another occasion, okay? Finally, to sum up, just in case any of you find this interesting, which I definitely hope, to make a screenshot of everything, just remember these highlights. Be open, others are designing fantastic tools that can benefit from your solution, from your ideas, from your technology and nowadays even in terms of business, the solution is being open. The solution is collaboration. We have to enhance collaboration among the users of our digital tool but also we have to collaborate with others, with other advisors, with other networks, with all the developers, with other businesses, okay? You have to make your solution so available that it's not worth copying it. This may seem surprising but now that you know the Estratos example, you understand that. The Estratos platform and the Estratos solution is so available. It's so easy to link to the data and the maps and the processed information that it's not worth copying Estratos. It's better to buy the output of the platform and nowadays some of the best clients of the company work this way. They have their own platform but the system is so available that it's not worth making a replica, okay? And going to the core again of the issue, analyze farmers decision process, how they think, do not analyze only their needs. If you only analyze their needs, you may be missing important information that leads to farmers not using the tool when it's more crucial, okay? For example, during harvesting seasons when they have a lot of work to do. Think about when the farmer will use the tool and how will the farmer use the tool and when he's not going to do so regardless what we do. Think also about how the farmer will apply the tools output. The best decision is completely useless if the farmer doesn't have the means or doesn't want to apply this decision, okay? Customization is key. This strategy of one size fits all does not work anymore. So think of building blocks when designing your digital tool. High impact often comes from low tech solution. I'm happy also to see this reflected on the previous presentation. Social innovation can be even more powerful than technological innovation. We've addressed this very, very briefly today but the conclusion is this, do not have in your designing team experts on technology, include in your designing team experts on social innovation. This is very, very powerful to understand the way of thinking of farmers. We have to engage these farmers into every step of the process. So this is where it's very important to have this expert on social innovation. And don't be afraid to go back and forth as many times as it's needed. Don't let farmers know the system until it comes to the market is a bad thing unless you are Google or Apple or Microsoft or one of these big players, okay? But we don't want to play in this league. Usability is very, very important but users' time and confidence are essential. And this is the core message of today's presentation again. And just to sum up everything, we can say that digital tools are only the way to fulfill a purpose. You don't have to lose your focus. Technology is always a tool to fulfill the purpose. It's never a purpose itself, okay? So thank you very much for your time. Hope I'm on time and feel free to ask. Now this morning or later, here you have my contact and I will be more than happy to address any question that you have. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Falguero. I think you've very adequately addressed the key aspects for designing successful digital tools. Clearly we need to be focused on the purpose, the metrics for measurements and the impact of the tool must be measurable as well. Pretty interesting that cost-saving oriented tools were not the top-ranked but rather time-giving and confidence and decision-making with the tools that mean a lot of different. That was pretty interesting. We're moving right along. Can I ask the presenters to focus on the time? We have three presentations still to get through and we have to end at 11. So without, I'm going straight into our next presentation. Our next presenter is Professor Nia Fengying, who is a member of the State Council leading group for poverty alleviation and development expert advisory committee, Secretary-General of China Agricultural Modernization Association and a member of the advisory committee of the UN Secretary-General's Food Systems Summit in 2021. She has led more than 100 research projects founded by domestic agencies such as NNSFC and MARA and international organizations, including FAO, WFP, UNDP, CABI, ETH and ADP. Professor Nia has worked in the areas of food security and nutrition, poverty reduction and international cooperation strategy. She is here with us this morning in her capacity as the Deputy Director-General of the Agricultural Information Institute and Deputy Director-General of the Center for International Agriculture Research and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as well as the Chief Scientist of the International Agriculture Research Team. This morning, she is sharing with us Digital Agriculture Extension in China. She is joined by Associate Professor Gua Li Feng, Deputy Director of the Ecological Agriculture Information Service Laboratory of the Agriculture Information Institute Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He is focused on ICT application in agriculture and rural development, such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things and big data. He has experienced in several nationwide research projects such as the National Science and Technology Support Program research and application of cloud computing technology for rural information service and public sector scientific research funding program integration and demonstration of agriculture extension service based on ICTs. We welcome our next presenters. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Good evening and everyone. And thank you for the committee, you met me and Dr. Gua Li Feng to join these important events. And also thank you Dongle and Xiaojie to help to facilitate this and the connection. And so, I learned a lot from the two presentation. And I think here is now focusing on how the digital and equipment or ICT help us in the extension and the staff to use the digital ICT to do extension work. So for the main content is about the, maybe mainly I think the two part, but the first part is about the background about China agriculture extension system and then digital extension practice in China recent years. And the CAS solution for the digital agriculture extension and finally, I think a short discussion and with you. And for the agriculture extension system, I think China is, for the extension system is a little complicated because it's composed of serious public institutions and also private sectors, international organization and NGOs for the public institution, including agriculture extension agency and by the government and supported at a different level in China and the research institutions and universities also and join the extension work through their projects and also private sector and involved in some input like seed fertilizer, machinery and also agriculture and provide and the technicals and services also for farmer cooperatives and the emerging force in technical and support and they also provide a lot of technical and services. So in China, I think the major force of agriculture extension is public one. We have five level in the extension system from the more ministry of agriculture and the foreign affairs, we have the national and extension station and then in provisional level, we have a 31 provisional level and extension center and then the regional and then the county and finally the township. So there's a five level agriculture extension center or station like focusing on crop, livestock, fishery, machinery, and some specific commodities and the specific technologies. And in each township, even in a remote area, there are agriculture extension station in China. So they are the major working force in extension in China. So how about the digital extension in China recent years? And as we know, we have a lot of institutions and involved in the extension services by using ICT or digital tools and recent years, like in the central agricultural broadcasting and school, I think it also has at least two level from the national level, provisional level, sometimes in some cases, the regional level will have broadcast and the school and they provide a lot of training related to this like ICT, like how to use the smartphone and they say is the one, I think it is the public institution that is evolving in its technology extension. And also we have some state-owned enterprises like Tadcom. They also, since 2014, and they have developed their own and the APP or websites to provide the technology for farmers. And also we have the CNKI and formally or originally, they only provide the general and the articles and also the dissertation for experts or for students. And the recent years, they also provide some the common technology and for local farmers and also for the extension and the staff. And also we know a lot of agribusiness and they also provide some technology and by using the new and the telephone and the smartphone or other ICT advice. So this is one example for one company to provide the technology. And also we have a special and the APP and also provide by the private sector, we call the SMART APP. They also carry out a lot of information services and for the agriculture, we call it the non-doctor is agriculture doctor. And also we can see in the major policy is the extension worker. How we use the ICT to help this extension worker and to help them to do agricultural extension from La Caste. I think since 2005 and the La Caste team began to build the framework of a client, we call the Agriculture Client Platform. And under the support of Ministry of Agriculture and we design and constructed National Agriculture Extension Client to provide various services for agricultural extension staff from different levels, especially from the grass root level. And also I think the function is providing information and also provide the consulting and idea and also technical solution. And also I think for their function, I think it is also and they basically idea is provide a lot of and integrated a lot of resources and knowledge from different kind of resources. And also and they including different sector, different agency, different department. And also they provide a lot of extension and staff with smart and the terminals. I think at the beginning in 2005, we use the portable and the computer and then they use the pad. Now I think they use the smartphone and it's very common and access to the client. And also we provide this framework and to provide the list and the list and information or technology the client and through the different and the technical and the solution provide the list and the information and the expertise to the remote experts and to various region. And also and to provide this information to some of the micro and the agribusiness and the man. And also I think it is the, this is a platform or this column is based on knowledge. So we have gathered all of the knowledge and technology together and build the Q&A database and then they now they can and self-learning and they can automatically answer and the major of like this question. So, and it's, we can do it and based on this and the list of the client and we can provide the value edit the service and the experts consultants. We can have online and online and the diagnose room and also we can have the one-on-one and the tutors and the targeting on a different specific and the crop and the specific and the issue. And also and this and the cloud platform can provide online training and they can learn by themselves and they has different license, different chapters and the way we also and the design list and the causes according to the different and the demands. So I think it's a, it's a building in 2005 maybe the early, well, for the earliest one for the provide and the services and the training and to the extension work. And however, and it's, we found it's really need a lot of investment. Since 2005 and we have applied and two huge project or big project in 2009 and 2013 and the continuous support from the public but also I think it is not enough. We also want to issue is how profit sector also and has the incentive to invest in this kind of a public cloud. And it's an, I think it's also need a marketing oriented approach to identify and which part I think mainly and supported by the government and the fund and some we can attract private sector to join this and the cloud and to more investment and to provide the more and the useful and the services. And I think the second challenges is about the capacity building. When you talk about the ICT, I think it is very new and also it's developed every day. So the training is really important. So I think in recent years, we have a lot of and the training program from the private sector also from the public sector only to training people how to use the smartphone like the secretary of FAO and the set as a smartphone is one of the new agricultural tool. So how can we and find the mall and the fund to training? I think it is also is very necessary but also we need to consider a lot of things like and what's how can we and the design and the courses, how can I organize the courses? And also in this term, how can I attract more and the more public and the societies to have to join this and the training and the program to help more and the staff workers to easily access to this and we can see the cloud and also the cloud itself and also to need the training to use the new tool or new technology to provide the efficient and the services. And also I think the third is learning for shame and also I learned a lot from the two and from the two presented speakers and they talk a lot about learning and sharing and the sure and we need to exchange, we need the communication, we need collaboration and in different region, different topic and that's my presentation. Thank you very much. Thank you for your attention. Okay, thank you so much for that wonderful presentation. I think what came across really clearly from the example is that there is an Agri extension ecosystem within China. It's fully integrated, it's urban and rural and you appear to have buy-in at the highest level with the ministry itself launching training programs. So very interesting that you identified a couple of areas that needed to be addressed, the use of a market approach and the greater collaboration of the private sector. So I think all of those are really important points that we need to take into consideration as we plan our digital strategy for agriculture across our region. Thank you so much for that. Our next presenter is Dr. Courtney Owens. Dr. Owens received his bachelor's of arts in political science and a master of science and professional service in agricultural education. He holds a PhD from the University of Florida in agricultural education and communication with the specialization and extension education. He also received a certificate in leadership and agriculture and natural resources from the University of Florida. In his capacity as a United States Peace Corps volunteer, he served as an agribusiness advisor to local cotton farmers in West Africa. Upon his return to the US, he provided several years of leadership for the farmers adopting computer technology program, the FACT program in the Cooperative Extension Program at North Carolina A&T State University. Dr. Owens prepared financial farm management programs that improved the record keeping needs of small and limited resource farmers across the state of North Carolina by using computer technology. In August 2019, Dr. Owens was appointed as the Interim Associate Extension Administrator. He has over a decade of experience in numerous extension positions, including field agent, extension associate, interim co-director of county operations and assistant extension administrator for program and staff development and reporting. In alignment with the extensive service he provides in several extension areas, his own research focuses on improving participation in Cooperative Extension Service by eliminating barriers for minority populations within urban and rural communities. He is here this morning as a part of the Kentucky State University Cooperative Extension Program to share his presentation, barriers and challenges to digital extension for undeserved and minority audiences. Welcome, Dr. Owens. Thank you very much. Can everyone see my screen? Okay, I see a thumbs up. Thank you so much, hold on. So with COVID, I'm also working from home. Just wanting to put that disclaimer out here so I don't have the luxuries of everything in the house at the office, but everything is gonna go just smoothly. Again, thank you for that wonderful welcome. I'm very pleased to be here to talk about the barriers and challenges to digital extension for underserved and minority audiences. So today I would like to talk about for the agenda a quick overview of Cooperative Extension and the 1890 extension system, define underserved and underrepresented audiences, talk about some barriers and challenges we had here at Kentucky State University, communication to stakeholders, how important that is during a pandemic, digital extension approaches that we have found to be successful and recommendations and strategies. So really quickly, I wanna just talk about the 1890 Morale Act. And this was sponsored by Senator Justice Smith in 1890. The intent was to expand on the 1862 Morale Act, which also focus on agricultural home economics and mechanical arts. The second Morale Act was signed in 1890 by President Benjamin Harrison. And the second Morale Act focused on institutions that were practicing racial discrimination and was not allowing individuals to attend, people of color to attend those institutions. So the states were given the option to create an 1890 land grant, which Kentucky State University is an 1890 land grant institution. And because of that, it was able to establish additional partnership and formalize a partnership and a relationship with 1862 land grants. As you may or may not know, we have 112 land grants and out of the 112, we have 19 that are historically black institutions. And again, we have tribal colleges, which are 33. So here's the map. So just in case you did not know, we have in the 1890s are represented in the Southern region of the United States. And this is where I'm centrally located in Kentucky. And as you see, the white stuff, the white stars are represents the 1890s. And you can see the 1862 and in 1994, which are the tribal colleges. So the mission of the 1898 cooperative extension system is to assist diverse audiences to work with limited socially disadvantaged and economic resources to improve their quality of life and to also help engage and provide that research-based knowledge to the communities. The vision is similar, but the focus is to make sure that we're the premier and top educational system that work with underserved and diverse audiences to promote sustainable economics environments and communities and families. So as we all know, and all the speakers that came before me have really conveyed the same message that I will say today, but moving to a virtual platform is not easy. We had some challenges that I will go over in a few seconds momentarily, but it was a great opportunity. And we didn't know when COVID started that it was going to allow us to reach more people than we ever thought possible. And so we had to figure out how to learn. And I wanna talk about it from the perspective of our extension educators. Our extension educators had to retrain themselves, had to reposition themselves, and also they had to connect with other colleagues across the United States to see how they were using best practices for digital extension. So I wanna go over the term of underserved audiences. This term describes a particular demographic that typically does not have access to services. It's a segment of a community or population that is not currently being served by our organization. They're not engaged. And sometimes we use the word underrepresented because they're not at the table when we think about having programs and implementing those programs. So in extension, one of the things that we have to do across the board, even if we're at 1890 or 1862, we look at parity. And this is where we look at a population and make sure that the programs that we're reaching is reaching all demographics. And all equal demographics and making sure that we have all reasonable efforts to make sure that we reach those clientele. So now I wanna talk about the barriers. Technology, access, broadband and a digital divide, communication gaps, and financial hardships and transportation for stakeholders. And give me one second here, because okay, I couldn't see my screen for a second. Sorry about that. So there are a lot of barriers when it comes to work with underserved populations, things that we may take for granted or for instance, the ability to go out and buy the latest laptop or have iPads or computers. Another issue is in Kentucky's broadband, internet access across the state. Where I am currently housed, I do have access to broadband, but it is limited to the networks and services that I can use. But in the eastern part of the state, that is not the case. So we found that that was a challenging and eye-opening experience when trying to deliver digital extension. Communication gaps, rapport with minority audiences is a must. And so during this pandemic, we had to identify different ways in which we could maintain and continue the rapport that we have established with these communities that are at risk. And being able to afford fast-speed internet versus other extensional things that people might need, example, food clothes or just other things that are more pressing to certain families. So we had to think about that. And as far as extension educators, just needing more of their time promoted to getting equipped to understand digital extension. A lot of our educators were face-to-face. There was a lot of technical assistance that was done face-to-face, a lot of hours, a lot of time went into that. And so when COVID hit, we had to re-examine and re-imagine what extension would look like and how we can best stay above some of these challenges that we were facing. Like for example, just understanding Zoom and Microsoft Teams, a lot of our educators were not using those services for their programs, they were doing just face-to-face. And constantly working from home with no true separation. I will share a little bit about the work-life balance a little later, but I think that was very telling for a lot of people when we had the lockdown and shutdown and we were working from home, there was no separation between work and family life, because you was working constantly and understanding appropriate technologies for our stakeholders. So extension educators having to take the time to do needs assessment surveys to ask the questions which technologies are appropriate to their neighbors and to their stakeholders. So the digital divide, as I mentioned earlier is very prevalent in Kentucky. We have 120 counties and 35 counties have been identified as distressed counties in Kentucky because of persistent poverty, no access to broadband, et cetera. And so the Center for Rural Development have been working closely with governmental agencies to identify solutions for broadband. And one of the things that they also looked at is just Kentucky Broadband Initiative, internet speed test Kentucky. And so this is an opportunity to see where your internet speeds currently rely on and what your speeds are currently and how effective increase efforts to bring in broadband would be significant. And we also looked at Stride Force Initiative for Rural Growth and Opportunity. That came again for the persistent poverty counties. Not only are these counties, not only does this county do not have broadband, they also lack many resources. And so a lot of times these are the areas that we work in the state because of their underserved and underrepresented audiences. So communication for stakeholders to address needs. It's very important to understand what our stakeholders need. I know for us, there has been some programmatic issues as it relates to how we deliver certain programs. And there was a comfort to, I like to deliver programs face to face. And with the pandemic, we had to send out a survey asking not only stakeholders, but addressing the concerns of the agents to what are the needs that they have to move forward and then sending a communication out to our stakeholders. So in March of, roughly in March, we started putting March, 2020. We started putting some questions about COVID on our website. Very anonymous. It wasn't anonymous because we wanted to know who these individuals were. However, but it was a quick question like, how can we find resources to help us during the COVID-19? And so that was a quick submit button, just asking for emails, first and last name, and then their particular question. It was not related to necessarily our extension program that we offer at Kentucky State, but it was just to understand, this was when the pandemic was very new. People had questions about COVID-19. And so we wanted to make sure we was a bridge of knowledge to those stakeholders. So a step further, we took, we did a needs stakeholder questionnaire to our stakeholders and asking them how KSU extension programs can best serve them. And so we knew that there was challenges that Kentuckians were facing. And so we wanted to address that and just ask them questions about their social, wellbeing, economic wellbeing, health and how we could best craft and develop programs related to their concerns. It was a very short survey, 14 questions and it was sent out to our stakeholders that have been a part of our extension programs in the past and or they were presently working with programs that we are still administering. We had a total 450 respondents and out of the 451 respondents, we sent it out to around 500 to 600 people. So we asked a question about receiving information related to COVID-19. And this is the breakdown of how they would like to get that information. And this was some of our stakeholders, but again, this is not a true representative of the population because everyone doesn't have access to broadband. Now we did ask another question about having access to a smartphone and a lot of individuals, 90% of the population said they did have access to a smartphone. But in receiving this information, we wanted to know if they still wanted that direct contact with our county-based agent, if they wanted information through a podcast, blog, newspaper articles, webinars and trainings and Zoom or other relative platforms. So based on that information, we started creating virtual programs all areas, family consumer science, FCS, 4-H, community resource development and ag and natural resources and aquaculture because we have that program too, started doing virtual programs. And we recorded these sessions with the help of our media and communication and we put them on social media platforms and we add them at different times of the day that was convenient to our stakeholders. Cause again, a lot of these individuals were working a full-time job, having to do that was having to teach their students, their kids for virtual education at home. So it was a way for us to reach our stakeholders at different times. So our community resource development, specialists worked with small minority business owners and they helped them with information related to COVID, COVID relief funds, providing them with grants and giving them information. And so these are several of my employees that were working with businesses and providing them with stimulus money to continue their business during COVID. But they worked with them face to face and virtually because of the pandemic. But this is an opportunity that they was providing that information to these stakeholders. We also developed educational packets because one of the issues that we found is that a lot of socially disadvantaged or underserved audiences, transportation is important aspect to take into consideration because a lot of the kids want to participate in 4-H and youth development programs, but they cannot get there. And so what we did, we had some social media posts and we also had some signing sheets from previous participants and we reached out to them and they were willing to share their contact information so we can ship 4-H STEM arts and crafts and other programs to our youth that was participating in 4-H. It's also good to note that we work with 4-H at home having over 280 online activities and we use Google Classroom, which was something that our stakeholders did not have to pay for. And at the time we were transitioning with getting our Zoom accounts. We had Zoom, but we didn't have enough Zoom for all of our county-based staff. So this was a way for our educators to work for our population and provide resources to them. One of the most important aspects that came out of our pandemic and digital extension was the Healthy Food Initiative that we started during the pandemic. And this was an opportunity to showcase food production and work with socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers and stakeholders and help them understand how they can grow food because a lot of people was growing food, showing them in virtual demonstration, food safety and providing them with tips on how to grow it. Not only did we do that, we were able to post these videos and have videos where people could work alongside us and see the different growing stages. But we also was able to donate several pounds of produce, four million pounds of produce and we donated to charities and local faith-based organizations. So we have never had a virtual small farm, small farm conference, which is our small limited resource minority farms conference. And we have a third Thursday program. So every Thursday we have a program related to ag and natural resources for our stakeholders. And that has always been our traditional program that we do face to face. So trying to stay connected with our stakeholders, we moved all of that to virtual recording, pre-recording sessions and advertising this on our social media platform. Since April of 2020, we were able to increase our visibility by having it on social media with 11,289 viewers. 4,000 of those viewers were unique viewers and 703 were total engagements. But what was more impressive to me, we was able to market our small farms conference to 24 states and we had 329 people register. And that was very impressive because we had 12 concurrent sessions going on. So recommendations and suggestions that I have, again, I think extension educators should partner with organizations that are currently working to enhance areas that do not currently have access to broadband. One of the things that we had to do for our agents and educators, some instance, we had to provide hotspots. We had to give them hotspots so they could be connected to their stakeholders. Some instance, we also provided hotspots, which were a mechanism so you can get online. And we put it in a car and locations like that where students can, they can walk to and they can have access to do schoolwork. And so I feel like that's one way that we can stay connected with our stakeholders, but also just going back and understanding what their needs are and not developing programs that are comfortable to us but are comfortable and the need of the program is coming from the stakeholders. And so I also wanna just say that with the survey design, we also looked at the uses of gratification theory, which is a communication theory, but we focused on determining the social media that satisfy or the media that satisfy that particular individual. So we wanted to know if the stakeholder wanted workshops, videos, newsletters. And these are all things that we came out of the pandemic creating newsletters and weekly newsletters, virtual programs so we could satisfy our clientele. One last thing I wanted to mention is the Agro Safety Learning Lab. I came across this by doing some research, but I felt that it was something I would like to share because not only are we trying to disseminate information to our stakeholders and make sure that they have the information that they need to be successful in their farming enterprises or just being a productive citizen with youth development or education. I know that mental health and stress management is important for the educator, not only to the educator, but for the clientele. So if you haven't already viewed this website, I highly recommend that you do so you can get information related to stress management because again, that work-life balance was very, it was disruptive and COVID was a disruptor and because of that disruptor, innovation did come out of it. And so I'm glad to say, even though we have clientele that are hard to reach and sometimes they don't have the resources, there's still ways to reach those clientele. So I would like to just end presentation right here and just talk, give you my contact information if you have any questions. And so I thank you for this opportunity. Again, the presenters that have preceded me have mentioned some of the great ideas and I wanted just to share what we have done at 1890 and taking the consideration, the underserved and underrepresented audiences and how you have to tailor, build rapport and work with them based on their needs. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Owen. So that wonderful presentation, clearly, you shared with us very important lessons, Liz. I think you're starting point of reimagining what extension could look like, what it should look like is very important. Your information that the agricultural, educate the agri-extension educators needed themselves to be retrained and repositioned are also very important points. Thank you so much for that again. We are on to our very last presenter. We have reached the 11 a.m. mark, a little bit over time, but this is the last presentation. I would like to introduce you to Dr. Deliss who is currently the ICA's special affairs coordinator for the Caribbean region and the ICA representative for Suriname. He holds a PhD in rural development from the postgraduate college in Mexico in addition to a BSC in agronomy engineering and an MSc in agricultural diversification. Ms. Dr. Deliss is a certified project management professional, a member of the project management Institute Pennsylvania, USA and holds certificates in financial management and payment procedures for the European Development Fund. Fluent in English, Spanish, French Creole and a good working knowledge of French and Dutch languages, he has more than 20 years experience working in agriculture and rural development issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. His main areas of interest are sustainable agricultural systems, organizational strengthening of producer organizations, public sector project management and funds procurement for development projects. He advises and lectures in project management and funds procurement for development projects with particular emphasis on scope, cost, schedule and risk management. He has authored a number of papers in agriculture and rural development as well as public sector project management. He is here this morning as our final presenter to share the experience of the AgriX application as a tool for digitizing extension services in the Caribbean. Welcome, Dr. Deliss. Thank you very much, moderator. I trust that you can hear me clearly. Yes, I can. Thank you and thank you to the other presenters this morning and morning to all the viewers and participants in this forum. The presentation basically is entitled the experience of the AgriX extension app or AgriX app as you call it as a tool for digitizing agricultural extension services in the Caribbean region. It's basically one of the digital applications that EECA has developed to assist the member states in the Caribbean with rural extension. So I'll get right into the presentation. Thank you. Okay, why and how did the application come about? We were already doubting in issues of digital applications and digital agriculture with many of our member states but COVID added a new urgency in direct responses to the challenges that it brought about, particularly due to restrictions in movement and of course through an understanding engagement of extension and farmers. That was very affected. So in one of the meetings we had with the ministers of agriculture in the region in April of 2020, they brought up the urgent issue of how to continue supporting their farmers in the field with extension officers not being able to move around as nor an attack and provide the services that they require. The app was fully developed by our information and communication technology department. The whole structure and content design was a collective effort with our IC department, other specialist in EECA, the ministers of agriculture, the extension service board, officials and farmers in the field in the countries that we piloted and cause EECA staff in these countries. Basically the objective of the application is to assist the extension services to increase coverage and information dissemination, technology transfer, networking and of course quality control. Initially the app we piloted in three countries Antigone, Bahamas and St. Vincent and the Canadians. These were the countries that were readily willing to utilize the app due to the severity of the challenges that they were facing with food supply during the time. Some of the key products that we were looking at based on the nature of these countries, fruits and tubers particularly, liars of swine, poultry, small ruminants, but the app could also accommodate any number of proper product groups that one decides. Okay, one of the main features of the application, the app is designed basically although the base and framework and structure of the app is the same, but the actual design of content is country specific because of the, because there may be different priorities for the country. So we allow that liberty for countries to determine what is the content one might want to focus on crops not on marketing. So they are able to determine what constitutes the content of the application. The app can be accessed on the phone or on the web if you're a normal PC. The format that we have engaged in initially was the uploading of fact sheets of key crops or products for farmers based on the countries, based on what the extension of the country determined are the priority crops for the countries. But it's also, we could upload other types of information as well. Also the app would allow for alerts and to provide real time information for farmers. And these would include information on crop management, crop agronomy, good agricultural practices, sanitary and phytosanitary information. There is also an online assistance on demand. And the app allows to establish networks, network of users by country. For example, within the application, you could say, okay, we can have a root crops group, a fruit crops group, or different categorized categories of either types of crops or whatever dispensation you would like. And the app basically app is available on the app store, Google Play or on Google Play. Once we activate it for a country, farmers can free, the extension officers can freely download the application. How does the app look? Okay, so the app allows once you are registered, which will be handled by an administrator. EECA would train the staff in the ministries of agriculture, they would identify an administrator within the ministry. We would conduct the training with the administrators, extension officers. So they would not utilize the app. So they would give access and register the new entrants into the use of the application in that specific country. So they would have the login as normally do for any application. Okay, so basically that's just a slight example of how it would look when you go into the application. These are some of the faxes that we have uploaded for Antigua and Mabura. So if one wants, you could see the name, the scientific name, common name. Very important, the common name, because some common names of crops vary from, even within one country, from area to area and between countries. So we put the common name when the information was uploaded and of course you could click on the detail to get whatever you want. So we have the fax sheets. We have right away, the farmer could see latest pest on diseases and he could see detail for if he saw desires on the, to the right, you would see basically a history of when the information was posted, what news are available. So the farmer, if he wants to follow up by extension officer could go click directly and see what is the latest news, what is the latest information that is available. Okay, so basically here is going into one of the faxes for you'll see that for sweet potato. And basically the way that one is designed, you have again scientific name, common name or the names, a brief description of what that crop is. These are provided, all these would be inputted by the extension officers themselves based on the needs of their country, what they determine is relevant. Also you would see, you would see below there is an opportunity that they could add on links as well if someone wants a farmer wants to go and get additional information. They're serious, you could put as many links as you want that the farmer could go in and see more information on that specific crop. Then we have climate and soil and the farmer could also get information on the production harvest and post harvest best practices at his hand. Okay, so again, let's continue. Okay, so here is the fact sheet for pest and diseases. And I highlighted the fact sheet for the crop production itself, the crop cultivation and production itself. And here we have the fact sheet for pest and diseases. For pest and diseases. We have here Silas Formicarius, commanding potato weevil, as just an example. And you would see the farmer is able to come and get a description of the pest, see what kind of damage. And the farmer could also have access there to see, okay, what is available to control that pest, whatever, whether it is integrated merifers, whether it is a specific pest design or whatever recommendation the country is utilizing for it farmers. But very importantly, we are also able to upload photographs in there that the farmer could see. So if he's in the field and he pulls out his cell phone, he could go directly into that, look at the crop and compare to see whether that damage reflects what he's seen and have a sense of what he's facing. If not, the farmer also has the option to write directly in the group. For another farmer to respond to or directly for the extension officer to respond to. Okay, so here you would see that the farmer here, the farmer could join the chat group, he could post questions in the group. There's an emergency contact number for any serious issue that the farmer would have observed in the field or someone observed in the field that he could call directly to an extension officer or some person of contact to directly report it. Or the farmer could post that random in the chat and get either responses from other farmers or from extension officers. One of the advantages there that everyone could see and everyone gets a response on an issue that may also be relevant for them. Okay, so here again, we just see more crops being offloaded here, as I mentioned before with the diseases associated with which some of it. Okay. Repeat, right. So that's basically how the app would look and how it is anticipated that it would operate. Now, in developing the app, we did do conduct a survey, both a survey among extension officers and farmers to get inputs for the design of the application. I just pulled out one of the proven target population and some of the characteristics that we look at and the descriptors that was emanating from the family population. In the Caribbean, you would find that many of this, many of the others in the Caribbean, there would not be too much disparity in the characteristics. They would vary in terms of relative percentages, but relatively you would have reasonably, the challenges tend to be more or less similar across the region, maybe to some extent with the exception of Haiti where you would tend to get more serious issues, but largely the islands you would get similar percentages along this line. So some of these characters we look at income generation, what is the advice to farmer into farming and we had a very strong response as a motivator for being in farming or participating in agriculture. In terms of participating in agriculture or requiring extension information, community benefits was not cited as one of the key motivating factors. The need to minimize production risk was a very strong motivating factor for wanting to utilize an application. We have again, farmers, the dependents on agriculture as a livelihood, very highly rated as a reason why they would require timely extension information and utilize the app. The management horizon, whether the farmer would see himself utilizing that over a long period of time, most of them would say they would hope that applications of these types would be available to them over an extended period of time. And of course, access to extension advisory services is very highly rated. Participation in farmer-based groups, minority of farmers are engaged in farmer-based groups so they do not view that as a potential source of information that they could use when necessary or any real services for extension that they would require in the daily activity. The access to funds in these islands, most farmers would have access to funds and of course to mobile application. I think we also saw that in one of the earlier presentations very high percentages for the Caribbean region and of course, most farmers were willing to develop new skills in utilizing applications and they already had knowledge of social media applications. The response to the app, that the app in the pilot countries and currently we are now looking at implementation in Jamaica, Ghana as requested. So we'll be going directly from country to country to activate the app. But in the three countries that we have piloted this far, the app was very well received by both farmers extensions and of course the authorities in these countries. Most farmers were already familiar with social media like WhatsApp. So in the use of an app wasn't something too strange to them and being introduced to them. Introducing to them wasn't very strange or it was not a tedious exercise. In the Caribbean what we have seen this far, two areas that the farmers tend to focus a lot on the issue of crop agronomy and pest and disease management and market information, three areas basically. So these are the key areas where they would constantly require information and real time information at best. The app, what it also permits is if it facilitates networking for farmer to farmer experience capitalization. So now we have a means by which farmers could actually exchange their experiences directly in a group and the extension officers and other ministerial specialists can provide the technical oversight and guidance on what is being exchanged. It definitely expand the reach of extension officers because rather than reaching farmers individually, one extension officer from a remote area could now with one message reach a multitude of farmers. Of course, greater quality control by the extension officer in messaging for the sector before with various extension officers going to different parts of the island. There's no or any island is not, there's no real guarantee that a message which is delivered by one specific specialist gets across as intended. With the application it allows for everyone to see the message as intended or listen to a voice note as intended by the authorities in the country. And the app as designed there could also serve as a monitoring tool so farmers could monitor the exchanges of farmers to see what is going on, where challenges were also very importantly as an early warning system for extension officers and that in itself wasn't really on the radar and during the development of the app, but really it's an additional benefit that comes. If farmers begin to see farmer, if extension officers begin to observe by monitoring the application, another of text in any given locale or could be not nationwide, that farmers are asking a specific question about a specific pest or specific disease or some specific affectation of his farm. It could alert the extension of a say, this is not a one-time occurrence. This is something happening to multiple farmers that they could right away go in and try to identify and determine what the nature of the problem is and see if they could address it or mitigate it before you could either have a major impact on the sector. So in that sense, I've also worked as some sort of early warning system and of course the app gives increased visibility and promotion of extension services who are able to regularly carry the messages and promotions and directly to a large pool of farmers. What are some of the challenges? Okay, some of the challenges, you'll have differential access to internet services based on geographic area and connectivity. That's a challenge, not all areas and countries and particularly in rural communities are fully connected. And if you are going to use it up as a main tool for providing extension services to farmer, definitely the national for example, you'll have to deal with the issue of connectivity in these rural communities where farmers are located. Literacy levels, you would note that we are including written information and written instructions to farmers for the most part. So farmers who are not literate are at a disadvantage in integrates of information that will be passed on to them. So that's an issue that has to be addressed. Probably part of it could be extension offices has to be created in the meantime that voice messages and other forms of symbolic gestures can be included in addition to the information that is uploaded or ensure that other farmers who are literate could engage farmers are not literate immediately. So that means to pass on relevant information. Insufficient ITC tools, equipment and extension departments. Now, although we designed this app that could be utilized on almost everyone as a phone nowadays. So it could be utilized readily on these smartphones at the level of the computer. We also have the challenge and we have had some of the engagement with extension offices where their personal phone is not what has to be used for that kind of purpose. If that becomes part and parcel of the working methodology of their furious ministries, then ministries also have to find the resources to provide them with the tools, maybe phones for that specific use of computers, tablets, whatever, for using the app and engagement in the app. So that's a mark that has to be addressed and ministries of our culture to make the app fully functional and it has to provide some resources. Okay, administration of the app. I mentioned the app is based on uploading of information as much as you want to farmers. You could have a whole universe of specific information for your country. But it has to be administered. Someone has to upload the information. We'll see, it was like the extension offices. There must be some form of quality control for what goes into the app for dissemination farmers. And of course, we have information changes. We have, for example, today utilize some form of agrochemical tomorrow that may be banned due to whatever reason, health or safety reasons. And that information will need to be updated so farmers will know that you can no longer utilize that. So there is that need for some kind of resource input by national authorities so that the app could remain functional up to date and relevant to the farmers and the system administration. Of course, ECA will continue to provide oversight of the use of the application to ministries and changes and as we gather more information, if we need to update or upgrade, make upgrades to the system, we will be there. But also the ministry to make allocations for the registering of farmers, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, and finally, there is also, as a result of COVID, one of the issues we also dealt with, I just wanna just present this one slide, that our ICT department also developed another app because initially developed for Central America, but we have modified it for the Caribbean region and we are currently piloting it in collaboration with Caricorps with eight men with states of Caricorps. The pilot is going on in the next few months, we expect to launch it fully. And that particular digital application, one of the challenges we saw during COVID was that some countries, for example, like Jamaica, due to the severe decline in tourism, ended up with accidents in the poultry. Because the tourist sector absorb 25% of the poultry, but without tourists coming, you had that available. When you had countries which had deficits in certain food, I think, but there was no way of each country, everyone looking at their own particular interests to know what is available where. And we have developed this government-to-government agricultural trip portal where ministers of agriculture and of course, ministers of agriculture could put on a list if they have accidents in any given product, or if there's a specific requirement in the country for a given product, you could put out on a list that goes to every member state. And if someone has the product or company in their country has a product, you could automatically generate a contact and then put the two countries in contract into contact with each other so that that trade request could be filled. We hope that they are the use of that apple generate greater inter-regional trade and much more interaction between farmers because the information will be more regularly available to them. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Dr. Dillis. It's very clear from your presentation that we do have systems in the region that works. The farmers hadn't issued the agricultural extension officers hadn't issued. They were able to transmit this information all the way to the policy makers and get the situation resolved. So I think that's very, very positive and favorable. Before we move off of your presentation, however, there is a question that continues to be asked here. I know you mentioned it in your presentation, but what about the availability of the application for persons outside the pilot areas? I know you spoke about it, but can you just repeat it for the participants, please? Yes, thank you. For now, the country, the app is country-specific. So if you are in another territory outside the pilot, you'll have to wait till it has been activated for your country and then you will have access. And the reason why it is country-specific for now is very simple, the laws of countries differs. So there's no real harmonization of laws. For example, a pesticide app may be available in one country. It may not be available. It may not be allowed in another country or maybe illegally in another country. So you don't want that kind of cross-interference of farmers' seen recommendations which are accessible for another country on the application and they go and apply it and they are in contravention of the laws. Some of the methodologies, applications of one country differs from another country. And you don't want to create that kind of confusion by cross-sharing information with countries. So when it is activated in your country, managed by the competent authorities in your country, then of course you could download it and they could admit you to that specific group within that country where you are governed by the laws of that specific country. Now suffice to say, we consider working on a regional version to that very same application. But we'd have to sit down and have discussions with Kariko and the members here to see what elements, what components that we could jointly agree that should be included in that application. Thank you so much for that answer, Dr. Deliz. As we bring this forum to our close, I really want to thank everyone here for staying with us. We certainly went over time, but it was very, we could not stop it if the information was very relevant and that was shared with us. It is really good to know that we do have experts paying attention to the problems that we face and the experts have started working together to resolve these issues. And we all do recognize that there will be challenges. We also recognize that the inevitable transformation must be done carefully to avoid any increase in digital divide due to factors such as education, access, and scale. We recognize from the examples and best practices shown here lessons learned that we need to create a holistic and integrated environment and pay attention to the lack of infrastructure, the high costs of the technology, the low levels of illiteracy, digital skills, weak regulatory framework, and other issues that we resolve. I'm sure we are all leaving here today knowing that digitization, digitalization will change every part of the average food chain and will require us as individuals, as communities, as countries, as a region to develop the minimum conditions that are necessary. As we saw from the first presentation, there's a range from 32% to 90% of digital penetration and also to support the enabling ecosystem, to develop that enabling ecosystem. Before we leave, I want to extend a final thank you to the stakeholders that supported this forum, Rika, FAO, Eklah, Rilesa, Mapa, and also our very esteemed presenters, Dr. Norma Samuel, Dr. Janelle Joseph, Dr. Victor Falguero, Professor Nia, Associate Professor Gualifal, Dr. Courtney Owens, Dr. Kurt Deliss. I would like to thank Dr. Tessa Barry and the technical staff that managed your process today. Thank you all participants for your presence, your comments, your questions, your insights, which have all been noted. So with that, I bring the forum to a close. I thank you again and be safe everyone.