KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN AGRIBUSINESS FIRMS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47941/ejikm.851Keywords:
Knowledge, Knowledge Management Performance, Rice Farming Practices Firm Performance, Agribusiness Firms.Abstract
Purpose: Rice farming has immense scope in sustaining the livelihood of millions of farmers. Being a diverse ecological and socially background country, Kenya is lagging behind the developed countries in agriculture sectors. To manage all the knowledge available in public, as well as private domain, it needs to integrate and make it accessible to all the stakeholders of agriculture, especially farmers.
Methodology: Research carried out in 2011 in Kirinyaga district, Kenya, shows how sense-making theory and methodology can be used to assess the use of local agricultural and external knowledge by small-scale farmers and its effects on small-scale agriculture. Two knowledge systems, the local knowledge system and the external or scientific knowledge system, are considered dominant. The two systems can be synergistic and small-scale farmers have mixed them in their farming activities. Blending systems improve communication, livelihoods, and economies within local communities, and increases their participation in development. Data were collected in focus group discussions with farmers' groups and interviews with individual farmers.
Results: Results show that most farmers in Kirinyaga use external agricultural information in their farming practices. A significant number use combined external agricultural information and local knowledge, which forms a third knowledge system. This third system requires the validation of the farmers' innovations and documentation of the knowledge for wider dissemination.
Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: Information providers should adopt policies that promote the use of the three knowledge systems by small-scale farmers. The study was conducted in a single agribusiness chain. Future studies may look at another method of knowledge management assessment to see if the results will be similar. The results can contribute to the development of programs and policies, incorporating knowledge management into agribusiness as a competitive strategy.
Downloads
References
AFAAS. (2011). Concept and learning framework for the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS). AFAAS, Kampala, Uganda and FARA, Accra, Ghana.
Alavi, M., & Leidner, D. E. (2001). Review: Knowledge management and knowledge.
DoA&C (2000).Policy Framework for Agricultural Extension (draft)ǁ. Extension division, Department of Agriculture and Co-operation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Indian, New Delhi.
Frid, R (2003) A Common KM Framework For The Government Of Canada: Frid Framework For Enterprise Knowledge Management, Canadian Institute of Knowledge Management, Ontario.http://www.icar.org.in
Hedges S, et al. (2016) Sending children to school: Rural livelihoods and parental investment in education in northern Tanzania. Evolution and Human Behavior 37(2): 142–151.
Ifukor MO (2013) Channels of information acquisition and dissemination among rural dwellers. International Journal of Library and Information Science 5(10): 306–312.
James J (2010) Penetration and growth rates of mobile phones in developing countries: An analytical classification. Social Indicators Research 99(1): 135–145.
Jauniškytė I and Kvaraciejutė E (2008) Structure of knowledge management. Global Academic Society Journal: Social Science Insight 1(2): 4–20.
Jayasingam S, Ansari MA and Jantan M (2010) Influencing knowledge workers: The power of top management. Industrial Management and Data Systems 110(1): 134– 151.
Kamarudin HD, et al. (2015) Exploring knowledge sharing practices among paddy farmers towards building a foundation for knowledge creation. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity 5(1): 112–115
Kinney, T. (1998). Knowledge management, intellectual capital and adult learning, 10 (2): 2-5.
McAdam and McCreedy, (1999) A critical review of Knowledge Management models. The Learning Organization, 6 (3), pp. 91-101.
Mondal, S. 2013. Text book of agricultural extension with globalinnovations. Kalyani Publishers, New Delhi. pp106.
Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, K. (1995) The Knowledge Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create theDynamics of Innovation, Oxford University Press, Oxford
NPFF (2007). National Policy for Farmers-2007ǁ. Department of Agriculture and Co-operation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, New Delhi.
Tan, L. P., & Wong, K. Y. (2015). Linkage between knowledge management and manufacturing performance: astructural equation modeling approach. Journal of knowledge management, 19(4), 814-835.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Chris Paul
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
