Horizon CDT Research Highlights

Research Highlights

Digitalisation of Extension; sustainable agri-food systems in the era of digital platforms

  Eliot Jones (2019 cohort)

Eliot Jones is a sociologist and economist working with the UoN Horizon CDT, FFB and CIMMYT on the application of digital technologies in farming. 

Existing networks which connected farmers with research institutions, governments and private companies are being increasingly mediated by digital platforms. This has opened the door for many new players, drawing influence from the tech industry but also affording farmers the agency to develop their own, grass-roots platforms. This has led to contested narratives on sustainability, with traditional institutions competing with farmer-led groups to define what environmentally-friendly farming looks like and how that information is diffused. Current research is focused on the interface between emerging organisations within the field of digital extension, the digital platforms, the tools and data they use, and the lives of users, unpacking the narratives embedded in digital platforms through their design and the actions by which they are created and experienced.

Publications

Jones-Garcia, E. & Touboulic, A. In press“We're out, so wtf do we do now?”:
Brexit and rural identity in the era of online agricultural communities. Sociologia Ruralis. 2021

E. Jones-Garcia and V. V. Krishna, “Farmer adoption of sustainable intensification technologies in the maize systems of the Global South. A review,” Agron. Sustain. Dev., vol. 41, no. 1, p. 8, Feb. 2021.

J. Warner, S. Jomantas, E. Jones, M. Ansari, and L. de Vries, “The Fantasy of the Grand Inga Hydroelectric Project on the River Congo,” Water, 2019.