The Cambodia Agricultural Value Chain programme (CAVAC) showcased the research findings by Quantum Endorphine Digital on access to agricultural information on social media through their ‘Agribusiness on Facebook’ event, which took place May 30 at Sofitel.
Gary Ellem, team leader of CAVAC, raised the issues faced when disseminating information to farmers, “There is a lot of migration happening in rural areas, so a lot of the traditional approaches to disseminating information are no longer as effective as they used to be. Particularly for CAVAC, as we’ve increased our work in cassava, we found that farmers that work in outlying areas face particular difficulties with accessing information.”
Adrienne Ravez, Chief Operating Officer at Cambodia’s Quantum Endorphine Digital, presented the results from the research, an analysis on 39 Facebook pages and nine Facebook groups. She shared their differences and how to use these tools in conveying information effectively to farmers, providing insights such as how resources mainly cater to commercial purposes currently, with a high demand for professional technical information available for farmers.
A panel discussion further looked into the usage of these platforms in aiding local businesses. Mike Gaertner, COO of Sabay, Lim Ngountheng, Digital Marketing Manager of Smart Axiata, Pakk Yourng, Managing Director of Agribuddy and Mey Veata, co-founder of SPIEN Cambodia were invited to voice their opinions, tapping on their experiences working in companies that relate closely with agriculture or social media.
“People create Facebook pages, creating followers that have nothing to do with their businesses… So, if you have someone that is taking care of Facebook, make sure that they understand that [their] measurement is not how many followers do I have, [their] measurement is how much more information or how much more sales can I do. It is really critical that you need to know the strategy of what you want from Facebook and who do you want to reach,” advised Mike Gaertner, who explained the importance of using Facebook not only as an independent tool, but as an integral part of a company’s digital strategy.
For the Summary of Report on Social Media Use in Cambodia’s Agriculture is available download here