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With research staff from more than 70 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Timothy Thomas

Timothy Thomas is a Senior Research Fellow in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit. His research focuses on the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity. Tim’s work involves developing innovative methods for simulated climate futures and model coordination between climate, crop, water, energy, and economics.

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Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

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Where we work

IFPRI currently has more than 480 employees working in over 70 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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experts

Agrifood Innovation and Resilience

Eliot Jones-Garcia

Senior Research Analyst

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Bio

Eliot Jones-Garcia is a Senior Research Analyst with the Agrifood Innovation and Resilience Unit based in Washington, DC. His research focuses on human-AI interaction, user-centered design, and the ethical and responsible development of AI.

At IFPRI, he explores the conceptual and methodological advancements of AI, the skills and governance structures needed to responsibly integrate AI into agricultural research, and the socio-technical barriers that shape its effectiveness in extension and advisory services.

Eliot is finalizing a PhD on the digitalization of agricultural advisory services at Wageningen University & Research. He holds a master’s in Rural Development and Innovation from Wageningen University and a bachelor’s in International Agriculture from the University of Greenwich.

Languages spoken: English, Functional Spanish

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Publications

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Journal Article

From farmer-centred design to algorithmic participation: Navigating technical demands and normative discourses in digital extension

2026Jones-Garcia, Eliot; Legun, Katharine A.; Klerkx, Laurens
Details

From farmer-centred design to algorithmic participation: Navigating technical demands and normative discourses in digital extension

Digital extension and farmer-centric design are increasingly presented as complementary strategies for transforming agricultural innovation systems: digital extension promises scale and efficiency, while farmer-centric design is expected to ensure relevance, inclusivity, and legitimacy. This paper challenges the assumption that these approaches are naturally aligned. Through Critical Discourse Analysis, we examine how farmer-centricity is enacted within digital extension initiatives and how its normative commitments are reshaped as digital platforms evolve. Empirically, we analyse two digital extension platforms developed between 2014 and 2024, one in the Global North and one in the Global South. Drawing on public-facing media, organisational records, design documents, and technical walkthroughs of each platform, we trace how normative, technical, and interpretive frames interact across different phases of platform development. Our findings show that, in early phases, digital extension is framed as enabling farmer-centric design, supporting decentralised design practices, epistemic pluralism, and farmer sovereignty. Over time, however, farmer-centricity becomes instrumentalised to support the scaling of digital extension through data generation, peer diffusion, and environmental accountability, placing new forms of labour and responsibility onto farmers without a commensurate redistribution of authority. These tensions are not resolved but reconfigured through design practices, often obscured by the rhetoric of empowerment and responsiveness. We conceptualise this dynamic as algorithmic participation: a form of participation mediated through digital infrastructures that anticipate and steer farmer engagement in ways that stabilise existing innovation logics. The paper contributes to debates on farmer-centric design and digital extension by showing how even well-intentioned practices can reproduce structural inequalities.

Year published

2026

Authors

Jones-Garcia, Eliot; Legun, Katharine A.; Klerkx, Laurens

Citation

Jones-Garcia, Eliot; Legun, Katharine A.; and Klerkx, Laurens. 2026. From farmer-centred design to algorithmic participation: Navigating technical demands and normative discourses in digital extension. Agriculture and Human Values 43(3): 127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-026-10928-z

Keywords

Farmers; Design; Digital Extension Tools; Frameworks

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-026-10928-z Source record

Record type

Journal Article

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Conference Paper

Breaking the silence: Challenges in deploying language technologies for low-resource agricultural contexts

2026Mganga, Nelson; Jones-Garcia, Eliot
Details

Breaking the silence: Challenges in deploying language technologies for low-resource agricultural contexts

Speech interfaces are rapidly emerging as a cornerstone of digital agriculture, promising to make advisory systems more inclusive for low-literate and linguistically diverse farming communities. Yet, the technologies enabling this transformation—Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Processing—remain underdeveloped for most African languages. Our study presents both a systematic review of ASR across development domains in Africa and recent progress in designing, training, and evaluating ASR models for agricultural communication. This was originally accepted as a Presentation, but later changed to be a panel discussion.

Year published

2026

Authors

Mganga, Nelson; Jones-Garcia, Eliot

Citation

Mganga, Nelson; and Jones-Garcia, Eliot. 2026. Breaking the silence: Challenges in deploying language technologies for low-resource agricultural contexts. Presented at the ICT4D Conference 2026, May 20-22, 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya. https://ict4dconference.secure-platform.com/site/gallery/rounds/82002/details/10858

Keywords

Machine Learning; Natural Language Processing; Digital Agriculture; Food Systems

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Conference Paper

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Journal Article

Asking the right question: Toward a research agenda for responsible GAI in agricultural extension

2026Jones-Garcia, Eliot; Singaraju, Niyati; Davis, Kristin E.; Koo, Jawoo
Details

Asking the right question: Toward a research agenda for responsible GAI in agricultural extension

This study explores how generative AI (GAI) tools for agricultural extension can be designed and evaluated more responsibly. While current GAI systems offer scalable, personalized advice, they often ignore the lived realities of smallholder farmers—especially women—by relying on generic datasets and rigid evaluation metrics. We investigate three complementary methods: adversarial testing to expose gendered and contextual blind spots in model outputs; deliberative stakeholder engagement using the C-H-A-T framework, which focused on Collective knowledge, Human insight, Augmentation, and Trust, to surface value tensions and design trade-offs; and field-level insights from extension officers to uncover trust-building, diagnostic reasoning, and social intelligence absent from static GAI interactions. Together, these approaches reveal that responsible GAI requires more than technical accuracy. It demands participatory design processes that foreground user realities, surface stakeholder assumptions, and account for social and institutional context. We recommend developing gender-responsive benchmarks, embedding reflexive, participatory design methods, and modeling advisory reasoning based on real-world extension practice. The findings contribute to a growing agenda for responsible AI development—highlighting the importance of aligning GAI tools not only with technical goals, but with the social, cultural, and political contexts in which they operate.

Year published

2026

Authors

Jones-Garcia, Eliot; Singaraju, Niyati; Davis, Kristin E.; Koo, Jawoo

Citation

Jones-Garcia, Eliot; Singaraju, Niyati; Davis, Kristin E.; and Koo, Jawoo. 2026. Asking the right question: Toward a research agenda for responsible GAI in agricultural extension. Advancements in Agricultural Development 7(2): 35-49. https://doi.org/10.37433/aad.v7i2.633

Keywords

Gender; Women Farmers; Smallholders; Artificial Intelligence; Agricultural Extension; Evaluation

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.37433/aad.v7i2.633 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Blogs

Rethinking digital inclusion: User agency in agri-advisory design and delivery
Issue Post
 | 
August 14, 2026

Rethinking digital inclusion: User agency in agri-advisory design and delivery

By Eliot Jones-Garcia, Niyati Singaraju, Kristin Davis, and Cambria Finegold

Why accessibility and usability are not enough.

Two forms of critical AI literacy and why they matter for farming communities
Issue Post
 | 
May 29, 2026

Two forms of critical AI literacy and why they matter for farming communities

By Chioma Chigozie-Okwum, Ameen Jauhar, and Eliot Jones-Garcia

Contributing to app development requires an understanding of AI.

Co-designing AI agents for agricultural policy
Event Post
 | 
March 04, 2026

Co-designing AI agents for agricultural policy

By Kristin Davis, Eliot Jones-Garcia, Hlamalani Ngwenya, Arielle Rosenthal, Amanda Grossi, and Mia Speier

Generating insights for a rapidly-changing world.

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Events

IFPRI @ Tropentag 2026
IFPRI at External Event

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September 16 to 18, 2026

IFPRI @ Tropentag 2026

IFPRI is pleased to participate in Tropentag 2026, taking place September 16–18, 2026, in Göttingen, Germany. The annual interdisciplinary conference focuses on research in tropical and subtropical agriculture, natural resource management, and rural development. This year’s conference will be held under the theme “Towards multi-functional agro-ecosystems promoting climate-resilient futures.” Tropentag 2026 will highlight interdisciplinary research […]

AI Policy Considerations for Food, Land, and Water Systems
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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September 15, 2026, 9:30 – 11:00 am

AI Policy Considerations for Food, Land, and Water Systems

Amid rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), there is growing interest in using AI as a tool to advance food systems transformation. AI has significant potential to transform policy research in food, land, and water systems (FLWS) by enhancing accessibility, efficiency, and responsiveness in policy analysis, but only if tools are rigorously tested, made transparent, […]

Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) 2026
IFPRI at External Event

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August 31 to September 4, 2026

Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) 2026

The Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) will host its 20th Annual Summit in Kigali, Rwanda from 31 August to 4 September 2026, under the theme “Investing in Africa’s Agri-Food Systems: Nourishing Nations, Growing Jobs, Building Resilience.” The Summit will bring together stakeholders from across the agri-food sector for a programme of plenary sessions, technical discussions, […]

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News

June 11, 2026 | Press Release

IFPRI and AFAAS partner across four countries to test AI tools for farmer advisory services

The partners will convene national stakeholders to identify priority use cases and co-design approaches for testing AI-enabled advisory tools.

October 06, 2025 | In the News

Agriculture Ministry and LIFAAS host generative AI workshop to strengthen extension services (Ministry of Agriculture, Liberia)

With support from IFPRI, the workshop brought together diverse stakeholders to explore how generative AI can close extension gaps and enhance the reach and impact of agricultural advisory services in Liberia.