Using participation and participatory approaches to introduce ICTs into rural communities

There is evidence that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have transformed the lives of rural communities who have access to ICT resources. The rural communities' experience and knowledge of agriculture is often underestimated. The various approaches for participation and sharing of knowledge to develop ICTs by acknowledging farmers, will lead to socio-economic development and empowerment of rural communities. The paper highlights how to use participation and participatory approaches to introduce ICTs to the rural community. The rural farming community should contribute to solving problems by sharing their knowledge base with developmental workers and researchers using various participatory approaches. Community participation is the key to the development of sustainable farming systems. This paper discusses how participation' would help the farming community in identifying their technological and agricultural needs and assisting them to adopt agricultural ICTs. The authors suggest the use of a mix of participatory approaches to assist in participatory information and communication technology development - PICTD. This paper discusses lessons learned while using participatory approaches to introduce ICTs to rural communities.