Question 1 (opens 17 Sept.)

Rachel,

Our project has focused on training the agro dealers as TOTs to farmers. Because they interface with farmers, they are in best position to advice farmers on proper use. We have also developed a video which we are showing in different rural communities of ofcourse warning farmers against buying fake but also has some elements of proper use. To view the 14 minute video, click here . Your feedback will be highly appreciated

Bruce.. Please email me.. I would love to see if we can adopt any of your existing content into our mobile application to support Kenyan farmers.

Hello BackpackFarmKenya;

one of the challenges in  disseminating information need is the availability of dynamic and localized information to famer . It is nice to hear  that you   have  such content  for.  to this end, I classified  those information need of farmers as follows: 

a.      Pre-sowing Phase - Information  like about agricultural inputs, new vetc…

b.     Pre-harvest Phase : like  Pest/weed/ management, 

c.      Post-harvest Phase : like Storage, Grading and standardization, and logistics ;

d.     Marketing Phase:  like Commodity price,

Please email me we will share those  information in a full document form. I am also very much happy to see the way you  priorzed  farmers information need .

Email: [email protected]

Sir, I think you may be missing a few phases of information for primary production. As a commercial company we do not openly share our sms content but you are welcome to download our primary TOT training manual from our homepage and develop your own.

-R-

Bruce,

This is really great. Just recently in our village, a farmer purchased weed master  to deal with weeds in his maize garden, which was about 10 acres. Unfortunately after planting and spraying, 2 weeks passed but the weeds were not showing any sign of dying, and on returning to the Agrochemicals shop where he purchased, they refused to make any refund.

I wonder why the Ministry of Agriculture has not taken responsibility to spread such useful information to the rural farmers who are still cheated by these fake vendors.

So Bruce, how can we help disserminate this message to the rural farmers?

What are the steps used and how can the farmer identify that scratch panel?

and do you think that all the products on market now have got this scratch panel?

Thanks

Jimmie,

It was so unfortunate for that farmer to buy a product which did not work - moreso losing the money. We've realized that it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between a genuine and fake product.

You can disseminate this message to farmers through this video, click here . We are also using Radio, SMS and Voice messaging to reach out to the farming communities. Just let me know where you are in Uganda and work out something.

The scratch panel is vividly displayed at the bottom of the 1 litre bottle. After identifying the sticker, scratch it like you do with an airtime card and send the 12 digit code to 6799. Immediately, you will receive a response whether the product is fake, genuine or you entered an invalid number.

This initiative is currently available on only three products; Roundup, Mamba and Dursban and hope to have it spread to other products/brands after this season. I believe Bukoola will be the first since his products are also suffering. Thank you

Thanks very much Bruce for this quick reaction.

Am working with Nakaseke Community Multimedia Centre, located in Nakaseke District of Uganda, Central Region, 40km from the capital, 10km off Kampala Gulu Rd. The Centre also broadcasts a community radio at 102.9 Frequency Modulation. We usually disseminate such information to rural farmers through our community radio and village visits to farmers.

So i hope we can be in touch and see how we can work together on this issue.

This is my contact info;

email: [email protected]

Cell: +256 782 699495

<p>Dear Assena, How effective is feedback from farmers on information dessiminated to them. I am aware that you also conduct field visits what are the coverage areas and farmer concentrations? Richard&nbsp;</p>

Dear Assena,<div></div><div>How effective is feedback from farmers on information dessiminated to them. I am aware that you also conduct field visits what are the coverage areas and farmer concentrations?</div><div><br>
</div><div>Richard<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">

<p>An interesting development which will definitely help the seed trade and indeed any input. It would be interesting to know why a 12 digit number...do the digits have a meaning so that multiple products from different vendors can be authenticated by the same MAS using the number coding as the differentiating elements and hence making the algorithm for authentication easier to handle?</p>
<p>Given the plethora of support organizations, this initiative needs to be driven by a focus on sustainability...what measure of this is integrated into the implementation? Kiringai</p>