Abstract:

Shrimp farming plays an important role in generating livelihoods for coastal communities in the North Western Province of Sri Lanka. Despite ongoing efforts by public and private-sector technicians, smallholder farmers’ livelihoods are constantly threatened by shrimp disease. During earlier work, we documented that shrimp farmers were weakly connected to knowledge networks and that most farmers only acquired knowledge through in-person visits with technicians. We hypothesized that short message service (SMS) might serve as a practical means of increasing shrimp-farmers’ access to knowledge. We used a participatory approach to design a pilot study to use SMS messaging to mobilize knowledge about best management practices to prevent shrimp disease. We carried out an SMS trial with 60 farmers during one production cycle. Technicians performed water-quality analysis of common water bodies and collected information about shrimp health in real-time. They used this knowledge to compose SMS messages to distribute to participant farmers. At trial end, farmers reported that there was increased engagement in cooperative activity to reduce shrimp disease risks. After analysis of outcomes, decision makers engaged in a scale-up project to increase the number of shrimp farmers participating in the SMS programme and expand the programme to other aquaculture sectors.

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Date 2015/03/31

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