Have you ever wondered what makes a digital tool feel useful to farmers, rather than just another platform they ignore? In this episode, we reflect on what makes digital technologies effective for farmers, using the work of Digital Green as a lens and asking what we can learn from their experience.
John first came across Digital Green while writing the e-extension module for The New Extensionist Learning Kit for GFRAS, the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services. He later had the chance to present at the same online conference as their co-founder and CEO, Rikin Gandhi. Hearing him speak reinforced John’s impression that this work is grounded not in flashy technology, but in a deep understanding of how farmers learn, share and make decisions. That practical focus is what has stayed with me ever since.
Digital Green is often talked about in terms of its huge reach and numbers, such as their platform providing over 830,000 downloads and receiving 360,000 queries per month. But what’s more interesting for us as enablers of change is how deliberately it uses digital tools to strengthen relationships between farmers, advisors and information. Its early work centred on farmer-to-farmer videos, created in local languages and featuring local people, showing practical techniques in real life. The technology itself was simple but led to huge impacts. Farmers are far more likely to trust and act on advice when they recognise themselves, their neighbours and their local conditions in what they’re seeing online.
As Digital Green’s work evolved, the organisation continued to ask the same basic question: how can digital tools support farmers at the moment they need information, in a form they can actually use? That question underpins FarmerChat, an AI-enabled conversational tool that allows farmers to ask questions in their local language via text, voice or images and receive locally relevant responses. The team works closely with local researchers, specialists, and extension practitioners to ensure the advice is accurate, grounded, and usable. Importantly, this isn’t positioned as a replacement for human extension, but to complement and fill gaps when advisors aren’t immediately available.
FarmerChat gives farmers access to practical, climate-smart advice in their own language through a simple mobile app. It’s available 24/7, at no cost to farmers, and is designed to scale to millions of users. What stands out is how much attention is paid to context. FarmerChat operates in local languages, recognises regional crops and production systems, and is shaped by ongoing feedback from farmers and partner organisations. The technology adapts to farmers, rather than asking farmers to adapt to the technology. That’s a lesson worth remembering, particularly for those of us working in highly digitised extension systems.
So what does this mean for us in Australia and New Zealand? On the surface, our contexts look very different. Connectivity is generally better, literacy levels are high, and advisory systems are comparatively well resourced. Yet many of the challenges are surprisingly similar. Farmers are time-poor. Trust matters. Information overload is real. And digital tools that don’t clearly add value are quickly ignored.
One clear takeaway is the importance of co-design. Digital Green’s tools are built with farmers and frontline advisors, not presented as a final version for use. In Australia and New Zealand, we sometimes expect farmers to adopt digital platforms developed by specialists and designed primarily around institutional needs. Learning from Digital Green means slowing down, involving farmers early, and being willing to shape tools based on how they’re actually used in paddocks, sheds and kitchens.
Another lesson lies in how Digital Green blends digital and human interaction. Videos are facilitated through community networks. FarmerChat is embedded within existing advisory relationships. The technology works because it reinforces, rather than replaces, trusted connections. In our region, there’s an opportunity to think more deliberately about how digital tools support advisors’ roles, rather than adding another layer of complexity to their work.
There’s also something to learn from the organisation’s comfort with simplicity. Not every problem needs a sophisticated dashboard or a fully integrated platform. Sometimes a short video, a chat message, or a timely prompt can be enough to shift practice. For extension practitioners under pressure to ‘go digital’, this is a helpful reminder that effectiveness should trump novelty!
Ultimately, what Digital Green shows us is that effective digital extension is less about the technology itself and more about how it fits into farmers’ lives. It’s about respect for local knowledge, careful attention to language and timing, and a willingness to keep learning from users. Those principles travel well, regardless of geography.
Coming back to our opening question, what makes digital technologies genuinely connect with farmers isn’t scale or sophistication, but relevance, trust and usefulness. Digital Green’s work offers practical inspiration for how we might approach digital extension more thoughtfully here in Australia and New Zealand, starting with farmers’ realities and building out from there.
Well, you’ve read our thoughts, now we’d like to hear yours. Add a comment below and tell us about your experiences with digital tools in extension, including what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what you’d like to try next. We don’t want this to be a one-way conversation, so please join in by sharing your ideas with us.
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Resources
SAS-P. (2025). Farmer.Chat helps farmers in Asia and Africa – Digital Green. Available online.