Question 1 (opens 12 Nov.)
Question 1: What roles does ICT play in producer organizations? Support examples with specific reference to an organization, the technology tool(s), and content delivered.
In particular consider:
- How can ICT facilitate accountability and transparency among members of an organization and between different organizations?
- How can ICT facilitate climate change adaptation among members of an organization and the rural communities where the organization is active?
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Very good points. Can we build on these ideas with examples in practice?
How can ICT and organizations (like cooperatives, self-help groups, professional associations, etc.) together ensure that the information needed is available and accessible?
And how can ICT and organizations do this in a way that is affordable and sustainable?
Hi Michael,
I am inclined to think that availability and accessibility could be mainly a function of infrastructure which also largely determines affordability. There are many drivers of infrastructural improvements – policies that offer incentives to those in the telecoms industry to invest in more and better infrastructure; deregulation that will allow for more market competition which can result in more and affordable choices; private sector companies finding opportunities in bottom-of-pyramid marketing (e.g. paid SMS services to farmers on market prices such as the MFARM example in Kenya); etc.
Smallholder farmer organizations can form a network or link up with NGOs to advocate for such policies to be adopted by governments. They can also try to work with IGOs or funding institutions, or pursue partnerships to get support for ICT facilities and training that can facilitate information access and dissemination, education, and also the development of ICT-based solutions that address some of their farming concerns.
Most farmer organizations, as could be gleaned from the examples, share the costs and benefits of ICT access. The farmer who invested in a 3G mobile phone to access agricultural information on the Internet and who shares this via traditional modes of communication with the community is one such case.
Sustainability is also a factor of capacity (access) and capability (skills, competencies). Farmers will need to be educated or trained in ICT for its use to be sustainable. And again ICT private sector companies can be tapped for this as it is in their interest to develop and expand markets for their product and services.
At the intergovernmental level, capacity building in agriculture, as part of the broader issue of food security, is also being addressed whether in funding support, technology transfer and infrastructural development, including ICT.
Thanks,
Lucy
I agree with all your points and I do believe in them. I would just like to add that in every farming/fishing/agricultural community we work with, we are certainly dealing with "digital migrants or even digital refugees" unlike the urban people in any country who develop and/or born as digital natives. And yet in education there is this principle of readiness which has to be considered. Would these people be ready to shift their paradigms and proceed to new ways of thinking in contrast to their accepted traditional ways wherein they would have to spend more time, money, effort with the former? How could we adjust ICT to the fabric of their daily living? Would training them to use computers, tablets, phones be enough to spark an ICT revolution in agriculture?
Those are some of my questions I ask myself as I try to find solutions to what seems to be very obvious problems in e-agriculture.
Gerard, you ask the questions that are the reason the e-Agriculture Community came into existence 5 years ago. We hope that through the networking, information sharing, and focused discussions such as this forum, piece by piece we will find all the answers.
Thank you Michael for putting me in perspective, it makes me realize all the more the need for me to work harder to find pieces to the puzzle.
<html><head></head><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div>My Inbox is getting flooded with info@e-agriculture emails containing individual participants comments. Since I read all those comments on your website, I have no need for the emails. Is there any way you can turn off that service, at least for me?<br>Regards,</div><div><br></div><div>John<br><br><div><br></div></div><div><br>On 17 Nov 2012, at 10:16, <a href="mailto:[email protected]">info@e-agriculture.org</a> wrote:<br><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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Hi Michael,
Here’s an example of how individuals, NGOs, private sector and community groups can come together to address the issue of availability and cost (and one more example of how the increasingly ubiquitous mobile phone is being used) this time focusing on smallholder farmers in the Amazon.
Brazil records one of the highest densities of mobile phone usage in the world where even remote areas of the Amazon River basin are provided 3G coverage. Building from a donation of smartphones made by Vivo, Brazil’s largest wireless provider, to residents of the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve, Harvard master’s student, Jeffrey Mansfield, has been exploring how these mobile phones can help communities in the Amazon, including agroforestry farmers.
The Tapajos-Arapiuns include fishermen, artisans and farmers who practice agroforestry, manage beehives and grow maize, onions, cassava, and tree fruits. These Amazon forest residents are also at risk of livelihood displacement by large-scale soybean operations that clear wide areas of endangered forests.
Mansfield has launched the Taking Charge project that will donate to the Amazon farmers mobile phones loaded with helpful apps as well as a user guide with information such as tips on beekeeping, husbandry, irrigation, trade, and new methods of sustainable agroforestry. Mansfield sees the project eventually enabling Amazon farmers to search the Internet for advice on do-it-yourself engineering projects (like tractor repair); to document their livelihoods and their lands, and any risks they face in relation to these; to receive weather information that can help predict rising water levels; to explore markets and know the best prices for their goods; and even to share their stories with the rest of the world.
As power supply in the region is costly and inadequate, Mansfield has partnered with an Amazon-based non-profit group called Portable Light Project. This NGO promotes the use of a lightweight, flexible solar fabric that comes with a rechargeable battery pack and a USB port which can power mobile phones, lights, and other USB-powered devices.
With inexpensive solar power and available 3G networks, Mansfield believes he has the “double confluence of factors” that could help to protect rain forests, improve the lives of farmers, and grant them some political voice.
(Source: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/11/taking-charge-with-cellpho...)
Exactly, Andy; Take the case of DigitalGreen, I checked on DigitalGreen (thanks to Riikka for the link), a non-profit organization that works through a video-based platform in disseminating agricultural practices, and I found out thousands of videos accessible for free on its web.
One of the sources I checked RE DigitalGreen is the case study of Glendenning and Ficarelli (2011) on content development and management processes of ICT initiatives in Indian agriculture; the study noted DigitalGreen's open access policy- videos are upoloaded on its website and on the social media- Youtube. Field data are uploaded and freely available through COCO- an open source website. Of the ICT initiatives they studied, only DigitalGreen and aAqua are openly available- DigitalGreen that provides open source database of videos and aAqua which stores archived Q & A.
This is certainly a matter of concern for the future development of ICT in agriculture- lack of access to digital repositories of agricultural information.
In my previous post on access/availability, I mentioned aAqua (almost ALL questions answered)- it is a free online multilingual, multimedia agricultural portal that provides agricultural and weather information and advisory through a farmer to expert Q & A service, the aAqua knowledge bank. Basically, it works through a Q & A service on an open online forum. Questions are posted by registered users to experts over the different spaces provided by the portal; anyone can answer questions, but this ICT project employs experts from Farm Science Centers, International Crops Research Institute, and several universities. Most of the questions raised are related to crop production.
Other ICT projects in agriculture:
- RML (Reuters Market Light), a private mobile-based service which sends SMS about market prices, weather and other agro-advisory to subscribed farmers' phones.
- IKSL (IFFCO KIsan Sanchar Limited), a value added service of the cellular service provider Airtel, in partnership with IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited), which delivers voice messages with similar information and also operates a helpline.
- Lifelines, a donor-funded project based on a question and answer (Q & A) interactice voice response system (IVRS).
- e-Sagu, an Asia Media-lab project that requires local staff to take digital photos of farmer fields, which are sent to experts who, in turn, provide the necessary advice.
Source: Glendenning, C.J., & Ficarelli, P.P. (2011). Content development and management processes of ICT initiatives in Indian agriculture. Information Development, 27(4), 301-314.
Thank you very much. It's very interesting to know that more than 2 thousand videos have already been produced and are all accessible, and DigitalGreen partners with NGOs in the different states in India featuring farmers or farmer groups explaining or describing a particular technology or practice. I think this NGO partnership helps a lot in understanding user demands and in providing relevant content.