Question 1 (opens 12 Nov.)

As a consumer you have a very important role for producer organizations as farmers should produce the food as demanded by consumers. Therefore ICT can be an extremely powerful tool to help consumers and organized agricultural producers talk to each other. The consumer should inform producers about the quality they want to have and the producers should produce what is demanded by the consumers. Very often the dialogue with consumers is the monopole of the retailors  (big and small). ICT can help improve transparency of the dialogue between consumers, retailors and producers.

Thanks Mr Pierre for this reply.

ICT is indeed a tool of communication and dialogue between farmers and consumers.

It is also a channel to raise awareneess about the costs of agricultural products in various localities.

Regards.

Hi Kelly, like you from the perspective of user (consumer), engaging in this forum is not only an interesting task but it is indeed worthwhile.  In my reflection, it is a sort of reminding us to go back to our root, to value our ecological sphere, the mother earth that is given to us to cultivate and to harvest for our own life sustenance.  Personally, this forum captures the inspiration to reflect the abundance of grains we take every single day through the greatest efforts and hard labors of our beloved farm's producers, who most of the time, offered their heavy sweats and sacrifices in order to produce food supplies for many.  While I appreciate this forum, I also think that the agricultural sector in our country (Philippines) must be enhanced with their needs to progress for they deserve to learn with the use of advanced technology not simply to remain recipients of information but also they can be developed and become potential sources of information, knowledge and learning too, once they progressively acquired the expertise and familiarity.  Again, in the reality, this reflection could be a process, but there is nothing impossible when all sectors, both the governments and non-governments are in solidarity and in communion with one common concern.

Information Communication technology now becomes a vital tool for development.  Although Agriculture has been a field since time immemorial we cannot deny the fact that it is still extremely important in today's society. Using ICT for development enhances agriculture and rural development by means of improving the process of communication and even through innovation.  Integral in any field, even in agriculture is knowing how to use technology for innovation and information dissemination.

Nicely put, Lalaine. These points are mirrored in Module 8 of the the World Bank's ICT in Agriculture Sourcebook, which is downloadable. I wonder if you can share personal experiences of farmer's organizations working better with ICT.

Dear Dr. Flor,

Honestly, I have no idea and experience whatsoever as regards farmers' organization working together with ICT.  What I have shared in my previous response was just my own personal opinion as regards the significance of ICT in agriculture.  Although, my orientation in DevComm might help.  Meantime, I think, one of my students from years back did a study on the plightof farmers in Nueva Ecija.  This I will have to check again and share with your the results. 

ICT can be an empowerment tool in the hands of farmers. An example is farmers in Kenya who are now calling a call center where agricultural experts discuss with them in a language they can understand questions that directly affect their farming. This helps the farmers make informed decisions to maximize the productivity and profits of their farms. The project, though a pilot project, called the Kenya Farmers’ Helpline, is funded by a Rockefeller Foundation grant through the  GSMA Foundation, Inc. This way, the mobile phone empowers the farmer in whatever remote area of the country s/he is. http://www.m-kilimo.com/media-centre/12-kenya-farmers-helpline

Another project is the M-Farm’s mobile app which gives price information to farmers. This ICT brings transparency in agricultural trading by empowering the rural farmer to get the best price for their farm produce, what markets to go to and when. This gets rid of crooked middlemen who have been fleecing farmers for many years by buying their produce at a loss as the farmers didn’t know the prices in the market. At times this would force farmers who needed money to settle urgent bills like school fees or medical bills sell produce at throw away prices to make just a few shillings. But this is now a thing of the past for many. Through M-Farm, if a farmer wants to know the price of tomatoes in Nairobi, they send a text message with the word “Price Tomatoes Nairobi” to “3555”. They get an instant message giving them the price of tomatoes in Nairobi. This gives them power to negotiate for better prices and make decisions when and where to sell their produce.   http://mfarm.co.ke/blog/post/how-to-water-crops-with-a-mobile-phone

Hi Anne!

Speaking of ICT as tool for empowering farmers in your place, I had just finished reading a local study conducted here in our country entitled: Electronic Information Dissemination through the Farmers Information and Technology Services (FITS)/Techno Pinoy Program: Bringing Information and Technology Within the Reach of the Farmers (http://www.afita.org/files/web_structure/20110302115147_701535/201103021...). This more or less harps on the empowerment of farmers brought about by Information Technology. It is very interesting to note that here in the Philippines there is this Techno Pinoy program that utilizes information technology (IT) as a tool to fast track dissemination of agriculture and natural resources information and technologies to farmers. The discussions specifically deal with two(2) IT-based projects namely: Development of FITS Information System and Packaging and Dissemination of Techno Pinoy CD. FITS is a strategy conceptualized in 1995 by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), a sectoral council of the Department of Science and Technology mandated to coordinate and monitor R and D for agriculture, forestry and natural resources (AFNR). More popularly known and promoted as Techno Pinoy in the local scene, the Program is an information and technology service center, a resource center and a dynamic feedback mechanism. The FITS Information System is composed of seven (7) major databases namely: technology,experts’ profile, farmers; profile, contact firms, trade/production statistics, publication, and video materials. The CDs produced and released under the program became very in demand that the material is undergoing enhancement , thus, a second CD is in the offing.

 Hi Dolores,

This is similar to what is happening in Kenya.

 Thanks

Anne

Hi Anne,

You mentioned how ICT prevents exploitative middlemen from getting into the picture. I agree with you, earlier, I mentioned how ICT is able to prevent exploitation by producer organizations of resource managers.  In this situation, resource managers can evolve and become producer organizations themselves without the need to link up with an external producer organization.  On the outset, resource managers who do not have the capability to evolve into producer organizations could use ICT to determine the best producer organization for their resources.  ICT, in this respect, does not only empower the resource manager but the producer organization as well.