Do you have any concrete examples of successful use of ICTs in sustainable intensification of horticulture crop based systems

Production of Agriculture information and sharing it using appropriate technologies such as videos has the most pervasive influence on attitudes and opinions in contemporary life especially in this century. In 2015 the Video production team of National Smallholders Farmers Association of Malawi (NASFAM) went to film a smallholder farmer Eletina Cosmas working with her pigeon peas and maize. They hoped that by the end of the day they will have a farmer-training video to pass on to other farmers. Eletina lives in one of the most remote rural areas of Malawi in Kasungu district, where water is a borehole away and electricity is something never heard of. On a 2.5-acre farm, she grows pigeon peas, soya and maize. These food crops sustain Eletina and her children throughout the year. Right before the camera rolled Eletina seems to be confused and she asks “How do I get to watch this video after you are finished doing it?” Eletina like most of smallholder in Malawi farmers are constantly on look for right quality information, at right time and right medium. In Mulanje district 600 Kilometres away from Eletina, there is a farmer called Mr Matola who has harvested nine bags of rice and before that he used to harvest only three bags. Before planting rice, he watched rice videos five times on the phone with about seven people, including men, women and children. The Videos were produced in Bangladesh by the partners of Access Agriculture. http://www.agtube.org/en/content/rice-videos-phones

How information flows in Malawi?

As the volume of digital information expands, the need for its logical organization is critical for purposes of information retrieval, sharing and reuse. In a 2014 study we learned that the DJs in Malawi distribute movies and music videos to a large rural audience. The DJs are mostly young men who are based in small towns and put videos on people’s cell phones and on DVDs (Bentley et al. 2014, 2016) (http://www.agroinsight.com/blog/?p=581) . Following that scoping study, in 2015 Ronald Udedi distributed three DVDs in English, Chichewa and other Malawian languages to 95 DJs in southern Malawi.

The DVD compilations were:

• Rice Advice (11 video modules)

• Fighting Striga (10 video modules)

• Chilli (7 video modules)

These were DVDs compiled from videos that Access Agriculture curates on www.accessagriculture.org. Each DVD has a language menu, where viewers can select a language (e.g. English or Chichewa) and then select which videos they want to watch. In September 2016, Jeff Bentley and Udedi visited as many DJs as possible, of those who had received the DVDs, to learn about their experience. This was also the first study where we sought out farmers who had watched the videos distributed by the DJs. It was learnt that 21,800 rural people watched some Access Agriculture videos as a result of Udedi’s efforts to distribute DVDs to 95 DJs in 2015.

How do DJs distribute videos to farmers?

DJs are young men who run shops called “burning centres”. These DJs rip off DVDs of Malawian music videos, Agriculture videos, movies from Hollywood, Bollywood and even Nollywood and format them into 3gp. 3gp is a video format for phones. During market days the farmers visit burning centres. The farmers can get his or her memory card filled up with Access Agriculture films to watch on the phone. These phones are not smart phones but the basic GSM phones with memory card slot (http://www.agroinsight.com/blog/?p=592) . This is exactly how Mr Matola got hold of rice videos.

ICT and farmers

Extension through government and farmer organisations is good, but do not reach all farmers, and all extension officers require quality support tools to get the message across in a way that speaks to farmers Farmers watching videos on their cell phones seem to be an ideal solution to the challenges such as lack of TV screens, DVD players and electricity. Though farmers like Eletina can be off internet grid but through intermediaries like the DJs they are able to access to quality videos at a small cost. But to enable rural learning without a personal facilitator, the videos need to be in the local language. For further reading check out: http://ictupdate.cta.int/2016/10/01/shave-haircut-and-a-video/

About Access Agriculture

Access Agriculture is an international NGO based in Nairobi, Kenya. It showcases farmer to farmer training videos available for use as agricultural extension tools in cross cultural languages at www.accessagriculture.org. Audio files are available for use by radio stations. Dissemination is done by partners and organisations who realise the benefit of the videos to their members. Access Agriculture has strengthened partners’ capacities in producing farmer to farmer video training. Videos and promoting them across Africa further work may be done on improving the translation of videos into multiple languages.

~Dear all,

Thanks to the organisers of this forum! Let me start by mentioning that, Worldwide- India is a top producer of fruits and vegetables, second only to China.  However, as demand for fruits and vegetables increase in India and beyond India,  mainly due to a change in  eating habits , there is a need to sustainably produce more fruits and  vegetables with less harm to the already depleted environment, if we are to  meet the required quantities without jeopardizing the future generation in doing the same. This discussion will indeed allow the exchange of the practices, tools and innovative technologies used in different places for intensifying production, as we embrace ICTs into sustainable intensification of crop production. Find below some of the cases, which have been done in India in an attempt to embrace ICTs into horticulture production.

A) BIG DATA FOR IMPROVING FARM PRODUCTIVITY

Farm productivity in India is one third to one half less than the world average. This is in part due to poor soil health. Soil analyses show the NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) ratio of Indian soils is significantly skewed in favour of N due to high usage of Urea. Developing farm-specific, data-driven diagnostics to determine soil health is a big opportunity area as well as biotechnological solutions to help improve soil health like soil amendments even in horticulture crop based systems. There are also a growing number of big data technologies aimed at improving the efficiency of farming and in supply chain such as drones, sensors, and other IoT technology, and data analytics to provide decision support to farmers and other players in the supply chain. CropIn (http://cropin.co.in) , AgRisk, AgNext , Skymet  www.skymetweather.com , Stellaps http://www.stellapps.com/ , and Airwood http://www.airwood.in/  are some of the examples that are working on this theme.

b) Market linkage models for Horticultural farmers
Indian agriculture is supply driven and less market-driven compared to other markets. This is the primary reason for seasonal food inflation as well as significant food waste and value loss along the supply chain. Though demand is becoming more predictable in India given the homogenization of consumption trends, supply is less predictable.

A farmer’s decision on which crop to plant each year is often driven by the price of that crop the previous year. Government policy in supporting the price for certain crops also plays a role in that decision. This presents an opportunity for developing market linkage models for farmers. This in turn could require innovations to help farmers with the timely and accurate estimation of sowing and harvesting in the context of patterns in consumer demand. The way forward will probably be hybrid models involving Big Data and Aggregation. Sabziwala, MeraKisan, Dehaat are some of the start-ups who have demonstrated successful aggregation in horticulture.

Agricultural Reference Bureau

Value Chain Linkages Management

Background

When Zimbabweans talk about being into farming, the crops that spring to mind are typically; maize, sorghum, pearl millet, soya beans, wheat and tobacco, plus different types of livestock. On the horticulture side, one finds; onions, tomatoes, brassicas and peas. Not much is said about paprika, or “red gold”, as it is sometimes referred to. However, Zimbabwe’s climate is very well suited to growing high-quality paprika, as it is relatively drought resistant, and so has the potential to be a high-profit margin crop for both commercial and smallholder farmers alike.

The Makoni Paprika Growers’ Scheme was conceived in 2015 by African Farming Solutions (“AFS”) and Goodrich Analytix (“G-analytiX”) in order to fulfil an opportunity presented by AFS to sell paprika grown in Zimbabwe to an international buyer, Extractos Vegetales S.A. (“EVESA”), while improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Under the scheme, AFS would provide the agronomic expertise while the farmers and other stakeholders would benefit from using a system, called aGrnomiX when applied to depending on the level of finance that could be attracted to support the scheme, up to 1,000 hectares of paprika could potentially be grown in the first season using good agronomic practices that would be implemented under the guidance of AFS in order to deliver an expected 5,000 tonnes of paprika.

In 2016, some 12 months after conception, the scheme was finally given life through Virl Rural & Social Financial Services (“Virl”) securing US$ 1.26 million in finance from the Zimbabwe Microfinance Fund (“ZMF”), as part of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (“DFID”) US$ 72 million four-year Livelihood & Food Security Programme (“LFSP”), managed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (“FAO”), which aims to; increase agricultural productivity, increase incomes, improve food and nutrition security, and reduce poverty in rural Zimbabwe.

The US$ 1.26 million funding, would enable 400 hectares of paprika to be grown by between 400 and 600 smallholder farmers organised into appropriate groups with large enough combined plots of contiguous land, such that the requisite agronomic practices needed in order to achieve the desired yields could be implemented.

Scheme Objectives

The Makoni Paprika Growers’ Scheme represents a quantum leap for smallholder farmers in the district. Many of the farmers being targeted and applying to participate in the scheme would not otherwise have qualified for the level of credit being provided for, nor have appropriate collateral, and equally would not have enjoyed the reduced interest rates and insurance premiums being charged under the scheme.

The scheme is built around a comprehensive package of; inputs, services and asset acquisitions at a cost of US$ 3,152.- per hectare that is designed to ensure the farmers graduate out of a cycle of subsistence farming and into a prosperous existence that improves livelihoods and food security. The funds are being lent through Virl to the farmers, unsecured, at an annual percentage rate (APR) of under 22%, which is typically half the rate microfinance institutions would charge and exceptional in terms of requiring no security from the farmer.

Based on 600 farmers participating, the average cost to the farmer would be US$ 2,659.- (loan plus interest).

The financing of agriculture in Zimbabwe, like many developing countries, particularly smallholder farming, faces significant challenges. One of the key difficulties is the lack of confidence in the other parties in the value chain. Lenders don’t have confidence in farmers. Farmers don’t have confidence in lenders. Suppliers of inputs don’t have confidence in either lenders or farmers. Off-takers / buyers don’t have confidence in farmers and vice-versa.

This lack of confidence typically manifests itself in the form of unrealistic collateral requirements and unsustainable interest rates that severely limit the opportunity for smallholder farmers to; either access finance at all, or do so at an affordable interest rate, that would allow them to climb out of the poverty-cycle of a subsistence existence.

aGrnomiX, the Agricultural Reference Bureau & Value Chain Linkages Management system designed and developed by G-analytiX, is an innovative system, combining technology and business models, that establishes, or re-establishes, trust in ring-fenced farming value chains.

In Zimbabwe, the aGrnomiX solution was marketed using the name Hurudza, meaning “super farmer” in Shona. By linking each stakeholder in the value chain and incentivising loyalty, visibility over the activities of each counterparty is increased and accountability improved. As a result, many of the risks associated with working with farmers, particularly smallholders, are mitigated and confidence is rebuilt.

In terms of the Makoni Paprika Growers’ Scheme, aGrnomiX performs two fundamental roles:

• Firstly, aGrnomiX was used to assist with; the processing of farmer applications, the subsequent selection of those that represented the lowest risk and determining the amount of land, and therefore credit, that each farmer or farmer group would be offered as part of the scheme.
• Secondly, during the life of the scheme, aGrnomiX is being used to record and help manage every physical, financial, virtual or intellectual transaction or movement of goods or services related to the scheme with regard to the stakeholders and participants in the value chain.

Farmer Selection

Over 1,000 applications representing over 1,000 hectares of land were processed using the aGrnomiX system. Each application form, designed in collaboration with Virl, comprised of circa 60 data points regarding the individual smallholder farmer and the group that they belonged to.

In conjunction with expert input from agronomists, G-analytiX developed a judgemental scorecard, to assess the risk level of each applicant. The final iteration of the scorecard implemented was based on seven key elements of information:

• credit history
• production history (quantitative)
• Production history (qualitative)
• Land usage characteristics

Initially, given the objective of maximising the positive social impact of the scheme, it was decided that the G-analytiX aGrnomiX score would no interestingly, the necessity of excluding about 20% of the farmers presented an opportunity, even before production had begun, to back-test the predictive nature of the aGrnomiX score in identifying suitable farmers by comparing the results from the two samples.

As can be seen in the distribution analysis, the aGrnomiX score was shown to be theoretically quite effective at predicting which applicants would have been suitable and, therefore, also efficient at optimising the use of the funds available.

If farmers with a score greater than the average, or mean, value and less than the 2^nd standard deviation, i.e. excluding upper outliers, were selected then they would have made up the majority of those actually selected in practice.

The other observation that can be made is that the fatter tail on the distribution curve of the excluded farmers suggests that those who scored well in those groups may have actually embellished their applications as these scores make up a disproportionate percentage of the upper outliers.

Value Chain Management

Being able to manage the value chain and providing visibility to the stakeholders was an important prerequisite to achieving the confidence level required to secure the US$ 1.26 million funding for the scheme.

The scheme is based on a multi-tier structure. Funds are disbursed directly to the suppliers of inputs and services as aggregated bulk payments at the level of the scheme as a whole in order to take advantages of economies of scale and the negotiating power of large orders. However, the borrowing is based on individual lending under a group structure whereby each member of the group is jointly and severely liable for the total of the individuals’ loans within the group and scheme as a whole. Likewise, when the paprika is sold to the off-taker the individual contributions will be recorded and then consolidated at the group and scheme level.

The aGrnomiX system is able to establish the multi-tier structure and record; both the bulk transactions for inputs and services at the scheme level that need to be apportioned to the groups and individuals within each group, as well as the individual loans and outputs from production within the groups so that at each level it is possible to manage and report on the physical, financial, virtual (e.g. expected yield data from satellite monitoring) and intellectual (e.g. hours of mentoring received) positions or balances and query the transactions or movements that contributed to them.

For the off-taker, aGrnomiX facilitates the buying process by using the linkages established between individual farmers, each group and the scheme as a whole, to record the production outputs of each farmer in terms of the grade and quantity of paprika delivered and then aggregate at the scheme level to calculate and make the appropriate bulk payment(s) to the lender.

In the event that there is an insurance claim, aGrnomiX is also able to manage the insurance payment to the scheme and the proportional impact on the credit balance of each individual farmer in the scheme as well as record the specific details of the loss and claim against the individual farmer(s) and group(s) for future assessments and scoring purposes.

Conclusions

The Makoni Paprika Growers’ Scheme uses an implementation approach that dramatically improves the livelihoods of smallholder farmers by promoting a graduation model and transforming the style of farming from poverty-prolonging small-scale ways into poverty-alleviating commercial practices.

The implementation approach, combined with the aGrnomiX system and technology, addresses the key challenges of establishing confidence between the various parties in the value chain. Lenders can have confidence in farmers and mitigate the repayment risks. Farmers can have confidence in lenders and can access levels of finance at improved interest rates that would previously have been out of reach. Suppliers of inputs and services can have confidence in both lenders and farmers as disbursement of funds is direct to the source. 

Further information

Alan Goodrich

Managing Director

Tel: +263 (0)779043180

Skype: alangoodrich

[email protected]

Deploying Vegtable Seed Kits to Tackle Malnutrition in Cambodia

World Vegetable Center in partnership with local collaborators have developed appropriate vegetable seed kits along with participatory training systems for the production of nutritious vegetables through home gardens. Significant attention has been focused on women as managers of home gardens and household diets through campaigns including nutrition awareness and sound household sanitation.

This is a USAID Feed the Future initiative with the objective of contributing to behaviour changes which reduce malnutrition especially of women and children, through diet diversification, by promoting the production and consumption of nutritious vegetables containing essential vitamins and micronutrients such as iron, folate and zinc, and vitamins A and C.

Successful use of ICT

The project has partnered with Akvo to utlize Akvo Flow as the survey tool of choice to monitor the training, technical assistance and uptake of technologies of agriculture and nutrition concepts by household garden project clients. 

In Year 1 (2016) over 1300 households took up improved agriculture and nutrition activities and were monitored through Akvo. This resulted in the accumulation of over 13,000 individual data records captured about client characteristics, training activities and importantly the technical assistance they received and sort from the project. 

Using this tool we were able to capture an enormous amount of data in a short period of time which allowed us to understand quickly what was the immediate situation in the field. One key example included the high demand from clients for technical assistance in IPM techniques and a low demand for continued assistance with garden bed preparation and variety selection. This immediate feedback enabled the project to adjust internal resources to focus more on IPM technical awareness, to quickly reflect requirements on the ground. A traditional paper based survey would not be so responsive.

This Immediate responsiveness is an example of what is needed in developing rural communities if horticulture is to be sustainably intensified for both nutrition and commercial purposes. Lessoned learned from Year 1 have led to an increased use of Akvo with more detailed monitoring to occur in Year 2 to quickly record and respond to garden production and nutrition issues as they occur. 

Upcoming open data approach

The project is committed to open data access for our project partners. With this in mind we are currently developing data cleaning, analysis and visualization resources primarily through R (RStudio and associated packages) for the stream of data that will flow in from regular field surveys by our project partners in Year 2. 

Our project partners will have access to "snapshots" of the data for their own immediate response strategies in the field and for longer term planning and reporting. These snapshots are being developed in R through the opensource web application data visualization framework called Shiny to provide our partners with interactive views of the collected data.

Too often data is hidden or inaccessable to the most important in-country project partners. The sustainabale intensification of horticulture in the developing world requires open access to data in a format that is accessible and timely to promote immmediate action rather than delayed responses when the issue at hand is often a rapidly evolving concept.

Further information:

Stuart Brown
Project Manager
World Vegetable Center
Email: [email protected]

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in support of Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (SCPI) are a means to help people for easily accessing information and gaining knowledge to make SCPI happen, with information related to the different components of the value chain from site selection to marketing and consumption. Information and Communication Technologies can greatly facilitate the access to and exchange of information. It also enables people to extend their studies and broaden their knowledge. These technologies are also widely used as tools and processes that help people store and easily retrieve information including databases, smartphone applications, and thematic national, regional or global networks.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) uses a wide range of Information and Communications Technologies to provide open-source access to up-to-date information about hunger and malnutrition challenges and solutions.

In support of Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (SCPI), FAO launched HORTIVAR, a geo-referenced database on the agronomic performances of horticulture cultivars in different agro-climatic environments. It contains information about the cultivation of vegetables, roots & tubers, fruits, mushrooms, ornamentals and herbs and condiments. FAO manages and updates the software to meet users’ requirements. It is accessible Click here 

HORTIVAR contains information about horticultural crop cultivars, production and protection practices aiming to assist growers in making the appropriate cropping choices in a specific site and agro-ecological environment.

HORTIVAR also provides access to a network of individual scientists and growers who have contributed with horticulture production data uploaded in the database. It also provides easy access to seed sources worldwide. To date 90.000 entries (datasets) have been uploaded by 1354 individual partners and 76 partner institutions from all over the world.

In order to foster and facilitate the use of HORTIVAR by growers, traders and scientists, it is suggested to develop digital applications to better fulfil its role as an informative tool for horticultural practitioners, an initiative which is quite feasible reading from the contributions made so far.

By Wilfried Baudoin -Senior Agronomist /Horticulture Specialist- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

 

Hi,

While working as a Production Research and Education Manager with the California Strawberry Commission I designed this simple web-app for sprayer calibration.  The code is written in R and it can be found here. In my experience, RStudio and Shiny are a great (and free) platform to create simple apps and visualizations.

The app can be accessed here or bit.do/calibrating.

Best,

Ariel Zajdband ([email protected])

 

Des exploitants horticoles Congolais apprennent à produire les légumes de qualité exigées par les supermarchés. Ils reçoivent ainsi des informations sur l’utilisation rationnelle des produits phytosanitaires, le compostage, les pratiques horticoles via diverses technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC).

Quelques organisations dans le pays utilisent les TIC pour offrir aux agriculteurs des services de conseils en matière de climat ou de commercialisation. Ce sont entre autres CIAAD, CSAYN et CARITAS.

La Radio-rurale (RTNC), par exemple, en collaboration avec deux de ses partenaires du système de radiodiffusion, asoutien la production d’une série radiophonique interactive, chaque matin de 5h30-6h00.

L’objectif était d’aider les petits agriculteurs dans l’accès à l’information en temps réel sur l’agriculture et développement rural. La série radiophonique a renforcé les ateliers de formation organisés par les organisations de la société civile et les services spécialisés sur les bonnes pratiques agricoles.

Les séries de formation web.2, organisées par CSAYN et CIAAD ont présenté aux jeunes agriculteurs un certain nombre d’outils basés sur les TIC pour faciliter leur participation et leur engagement, à la fois avec les radiodiffuseurs et dans les échanges qu’ils ont entre eux. La valeur des NTIC

Le système interactif de réponse vocale est l’une des principales technologies participatives. Ce système permet aux maraîchers d’accéder à des messages et alertes importants, de réécouter certaines parties d’émissions radiodiffusées et d’enregistrer et partager des messages

Avec les stations de radio, tels les enseignements tirés de la mise en œuvre de nouvelles méthodes sur le terrain. Le CIAAD, offre des formations et des téléphones portables à des organisations sélectionnées d’agriculteurs, ce qui permet à leurs membres d’avoir accès à des informations vocales sur les cours du marché et les conditions météorologiques, entre autres, ainsi que des conseils en matière d’horticulture urbaine et périurbaine. Le contenu est fourni par le CIAAD, un organisme d’information sur les marchés ; il est alors enregistré par le CIAAD et envoyé aux stations de radio.

Clement-TENGE TENGE

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Centre d'Initiatives et d'Actions pour l'Auto-Développement " CIAAD"

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