What type of ICTs are being used and how to make farming practices more environmentally sustainable? Are they effective? What are the biggest constraints?
Shahid Akbar Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID) Bangladesh
Dear All,
Great to see this discussion point and like to share one very interesting experience of Bangladesh.
BIID is promoting ICT enabled information and advisory services for the farmers under our e-Krishok program. One of the service under this program is Fertilizer Recommendation Solution (FRS) which was developed by SRDI, Ministry of Agriculture with support from Katlayst.
The general fertilizer usage in Bangladesh mostly determined by the farmer themselves and sometimes retailers (fertilizer seller) play an importnat role. From different studies and practical experiences of the field, it is observed that farmers are not using proper dose & type due to lack of appropriate knowledge and some other reasons. And it contributes to increase the production cost aw well as harmful for the health & environment. Thus, the FRS concept enrolled to make an online based solution to guide the farmers to know the right dose and type of fertilizer to be used for the speciifc location & item. Farmers only need to put some basic information about his/her location (to identify the soil type & nature), land size, item (crop) and other features (irrigation, typology etc.). Based on the information, the software will give a Prescription about the fertilizer management inclusing quantity, type and usage details. Farmers can get a printout of this from a telecentre / information centre.
The primary findings categorically showed that FRS suggest lower dose than the existing practices. But due to lack of awareness of the farmers, FRS couldn't become very popular.
We understand that FRS can be a killer ICT application which can ensure multi-fold benefits to the farmers.
Bruce CampbellClimate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)Denmark
Hi Shahid, thanks for the post. How does FRS compare with the cell phone nutrient management tool for rice of IRRI? (Which is not currently available for Bangladesh). Does FRS do many crops? The IRRI tool is described in brief in another post:
Shahid Akbar Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID) Bangladesh
Hi Bruce,
I am aware of the IRRI Nutrient Management tool and it seems similar objective, but usage wise, I found FRS is much user friendly, specially for the local communities.
Yes, awareness is one of the major constraint and also another part is endorsement of the government. Though FRS is a tool of a govt. institute but the concerned department couldnt communicate the service through the govt. channels like extension.
After reading your post and your reply to Mr Bruce, i am beginning to believe that there are more constraints than just communication of the initiative. Also, since you said it is a tool of gov't institute, why is awareness a major problem? Does it mean there is ineffective extension service or it is lack of gov't support/finding. What about farmers' acceptability. I think this is one of the critical factors and not awareness. Extension nowadays has gone technological, so a few mobile contact and dissemination can make an impact. Again was farmers' input taken into consideration when developing the initiative?
Shahid Akbar Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID) Bangladesh
Hi Festus,
From our experience, we count awareness is a major constraint and surely extension is not highly efficient to address all issues in Bangladesh, I am sure, this is similar in Nigeria, like many other African countries.
We dont think that 'FEW' mobile contacts will change the scenario, rather we need comprehensive and long term initiatives to change the social behaviour of farmers.
FRS is mainly the digitization of existing fertilizer usage information & recommendation of the government. And we consulted farmers for developing the interface of the service to ensure uner friendliness. Appreciate if pl share more about the Nigerian experiences on fertilizer usages and scopes to integrate farmers input in this (FRS) process.
Hi Festus
You have raised a very valid point and I think to make the scenario clearer I can offer some insights in addition to Mr. Shahid's points, as I am directly working with the FRS project.
First of all considering everything the awareness is one of the most crucial issues but surely not the only issue. If you look the profile of an average farmer in Bangladesh you will find that the acceptance of new technology is very slow. And here making them use a software/ phone call for fertilizer dosage is something very difficult. Because if something goes wrong who would compensate. Also another risk is if may be because of the bad seeds or high moisture or low irrigation the yield is not up to the expected level still the blame would be on FRS. The average rate of accepting new technology is around 13.5% according to Rogers Diffusion of Innovations Theory. And I feel it is less than 5% in Bangladesh, though I dont have any data but just my work and field experiences.
Here let me share an experience of mine, I went to a field visit to see what was the result of using FRS. I met a very young farmer who was studying in university and at the same time was helping his father with farming. He came to know about the software and wanted to use but it his father, who was a farmer for more than 35 years, simply did not listen. According to the father it was absolutely absurd that someone, whom he can’t see only hear over phone, would recommend the exact amount of fertilizer to be used in his land without even seeing his land!! To him it was a ridiculous idea and in his 35 years of career as a farmer he never heard of something so absurd. He would not trust any such thing easily that has a direct impact on his livelihood. I hope this gives you some idea of the difficulty in creating awareness and making farmers use the service.
Of course there are other issues like policy and private sector integration but those are less difficult to solve. Changing attitude of the farmers where a critical mass is needed to gather a momentum to ensure widespread usage of FRS and similar services are yet to be achieved.
From the context of Bangladesh I have shared my experience and the challenge we are facing in facilitating a mindset shift. It would be highly helpful if someone shares experiences of achieving mindset shift or breakthrough in new technology adoption.
While most of the site-specific management tools have been for nutrients, we need to realize that farmers need more than fertilizer advice. There is a need to further expand the tools to cover other inputs such as water management. I know that CIMMYT and IRRI has done something in this regard for the Indo-Gangetic Plains, but I am yet to see any such precision tool for Africa or the Middle East where water shortage is a major issue. Is anyone in the forum aware of such technology for these latter regions?
Benjamin Kwasi AddomThe Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)Netherlands
Hi All,
I believe there are a host of ICT solutions for environmentally sustainable farming practices but will like to hear your view about Nano Ganesh, especially those who have the experience of using it or seeing it function. Its ability to control water use by farmers and also reduce travelling to and from the field for irrigation - http://agriculture.gbiportal.net/2011/11/21/nano-ganesh-a-mobile-app-for...
Also, you may want to follow this event at our portal that is going to make over 100 ICT solutions for agriculture available to the public for feedback and update after the launch this Friday. We may be able to breakdown some of these solutions into Climate-friendly solutions.
Thanks for sharing Ben. If you could break out some specific examples of solutions that are climate-friendly, that would be greatly appreciated.
Also next Monday the second topic will open looking at ICT applications in risk management, insurance, weather data, etc. I'm sure there will be ICT solutions in the agri value chain map that relate directly to this topic!
What type of ICTs are being used and how to make farming practices more environmentally sustainable? Are they effective? What are the biggest constraints?
Dear All,
Great to see this discussion point and like to share one very interesting experience of Bangladesh.
BIID is promoting ICT enabled information and advisory services for the farmers under our e-Krishok program. One of the service under this program is Fertilizer Recommendation Solution (FRS) which was developed by SRDI, Ministry of Agriculture with support from Katlayst.
The general fertilizer usage in Bangladesh mostly determined by the farmer themselves and sometimes retailers (fertilizer seller) play an importnat role. From different studies and practical experiences of the field, it is observed that farmers are not using proper dose & type due to lack of appropriate knowledge and some other reasons. And it contributes to increase the production cost aw well as harmful for the health & environment. Thus, the FRS concept enrolled to make an online based solution to guide the farmers to know the right dose and type of fertilizer to be used for the speciifc location & item. Farmers only need to put some basic information about his/her location (to identify the soil type & nature), land size, item (crop) and other features (irrigation, typology etc.). Based on the information, the software will give a Prescription about the fertilizer management inclusing quantity, type and usage details. Farmers can get a printout of this from a telecentre / information centre.
The primary findings categorically showed that FRS suggest lower dose than the existing practices. But due to lack of awareness of the farmers, FRS couldn't become very popular.
We understand that FRS can be a killer ICT application which can ensure multi-fold benefits to the farmers.
Regards,
Shahid
BIID, Bangladesh
Hi Shahid, thanks for the post. How does FRS compare with the cell phone nutrient management tool for rice of IRRI? (Which is not currently available for Bangladesh). Does FRS do many crops? The IRRI tool is described in brief in another post:
http://www.e-agriculture.org/content/nutrient-manager-rice-mobile-tool-providing-personalized-fertilizer-guidelines-small-scale-r
Am I correct in understanding that the only problem you indicate is lack of knowledge by farmers of the tool?
Rgds, Bruce
Hi Bruce,
I am aware of the IRRI Nutrient Management tool and it seems similar objective, but usage wise, I found FRS is much user friendly, specially for the local communities.
Yes, awareness is one of the major constraint and also another part is endorsement of the government. Though FRS is a tool of a govt. institute but the concerned department couldnt communicate the service through the govt. channels like extension.
Regards,
Shahid
Hi Shahid
After reading your post and your reply to Mr Bruce, i am beginning to believe that there are more constraints than just communication of the initiative. Also, since you said it is a tool of gov't institute, why is awareness a major problem? Does it mean there is ineffective extension service or it is lack of gov't support/finding. What about farmers' acceptability. I think this is one of the critical factors and not awareness. Extension nowadays has gone technological, so a few mobile contact and dissemination can make an impact. Again was farmers' input taken into consideration when developing the initiative?
Hi Festus,
From our experience, we count awareness is a major constraint and surely extension is not highly efficient to address all issues in Bangladesh, I am sure, this is similar in Nigeria, like many other African countries.
We dont think that 'FEW' mobile contacts will change the scenario, rather we need comprehensive and long term initiatives to change the social behaviour of farmers.
FRS is mainly the digitization of existing fertilizer usage information & recommendation of the government. And we consulted farmers for developing the interface of the service to ensure uner friendliness. Appreciate if pl share more about the Nigerian experiences on fertilizer usages and scopes to integrate farmers input in this (FRS) process.
Regards,
Shahid
Hi Festus
You have raised a very valid point and I think to make the scenario clearer I can offer some insights in addition to Mr. Shahid's points, as I am directly working with the FRS project.
First of all considering everything the awareness is one of the most crucial issues but surely not the only issue. If you look the profile of an average farmer in Bangladesh you will find that the acceptance of new technology is very slow. And here making them use a software/ phone call for fertilizer dosage is something very difficult. Because if something goes wrong who would compensate. Also another risk is if may be because of the bad seeds or high moisture or low irrigation the yield is not up to the expected level still the blame would be on FRS. The average rate of accepting new technology is around 13.5% according to Rogers Diffusion of Innovations Theory. And I feel it is less than 5% in Bangladesh, though I dont have any data but just my work and field experiences.
Here let me share an experience of mine, I went to a field visit to see what was the result of using FRS. I met a very young farmer who was studying in university and at the same time was helping his father with farming. He came to know about the software and wanted to use but it his father, who was a farmer for more than 35 years, simply did not listen. According to the father it was absolutely absurd that someone, whom he can’t see only hear over phone, would recommend the exact amount of fertilizer to be used in his land without even seeing his land!! To him it was a ridiculous idea and in his 35 years of career as a farmer he never heard of something so absurd. He would not trust any such thing easily that has a direct impact on his livelihood. I hope this gives you some idea of the difficulty in creating awareness and making farmers use the service.
Of course there are other issues like policy and private sector integration but those are less difficult to solve. Changing attitude of the farmers where a critical mass is needed to gather a momentum to ensure widespread usage of FRS and similar services are yet to be achieved.
From the context of Bangladesh I have shared my experience and the challenge we are facing in facilitating a mindset shift. It would be highly helpful if someone shares experiences of achieving mindset shift or breakthrough in new technology adoption.
Thanks
Asad
While most of the site-specific management tools have been for nutrients, we need to realize that farmers need more than fertilizer advice. There is a need to further expand the tools to cover other inputs such as water management. I know that CIMMYT and IRRI has done something in this regard for the Indo-Gangetic Plains, but I am yet to see any such precision tool for Africa or the Middle East where water shortage is a major issue. Is anyone in the forum aware of such technology for these latter regions?
Currently with a USAID funding working on drip/trickle irrigation management for sub Saharan Africa, strategising on Nigeria. Kind regards.
David Ojo, NIHORT, Ibadan
skypename: davidojo1
Mail:[email protected]
Hi All,
I believe there are a host of ICT solutions for environmentally sustainable farming practices but will like to hear your view about Nano Ganesh, especially those who have the experience of using it or seeing it function. Its ability to control water use by farmers and also reduce travelling to and from the field for irrigation - http://agriculture.gbiportal.net/2011/11/21/nano-ganesh-a-mobile-app-for...
Also, you may want to follow this event at our portal that is going to make over 100 ICT solutions for agriculture available to the public for feedback and update after the launch this Friday. We may be able to breakdown some of these solutions into Climate-friendly solutions.
Mapping ICTs Along the Agricultural Value Chain: http://gbiportal.net/2012/02/29/tech-talk-mapping-icts-along-the-ag-valu...
Thanks
Ben
Thanks for sharing Ben. If you could break out some specific examples of solutions that are climate-friendly, that would be greatly appreciated.
Also next Monday the second topic will open looking at ICT applications in risk management, insurance, weather data, etc. I'm sure there will be ICT solutions in the agri value chain map that relate directly to this topic!