Enna.. yes, we all love the idea of apps and cost can be a challenge but so is the cost of both the smart phone and internet access needed to download them. So my 2 cents....
1. Literacy is still a real challenge especially in arid / semi arid regions where cultures have been more isolated to commercial farming. Classic content via sms may not be the best option unlike IVT etc... And even if they are semi-literate, most of them speak a local dialect that may not support immediate knowledge transfer in the classical form of their "mother" tongue. I found this to be especially true here in East Africa where Swahili is the official language but very few farmers speak classic Swahili and instead speak a bleneded form with their tribal language. So ... this may just be lumped into the feedback Marina gave on "language barrier."
2. Privacy ....This is still a REAL challenge for women especially in markets where they have very little personal privacy, let alone choiice or access to their own or the family's mobile phone.
3. Investment .... That's right. There needs to be more private secor investment. Of course content is a challenge but so is the lack of agreements to reduce the costs Telcos can charge because I have seen some mercenary charges being passed through. To make any model financially self-sustainable, these charges must be absorbed.
4. Sticky content & National campaigns ... Good technical informaiton / advice should be coupled with campaigns from national Ministries . Working in a vaccum doesn't create any stickiness within rural communities.
Ethnic and cultural applicability of ICTs for rural development
Rachel has been a very important fact, do not expect ICT functioned the same everywhere, in some cultures with different languages or dialects in the same region, perhaps modern ICT will not work, not only the language if not also the culture, not we have to see as a barrier, but as something to take intoaccount and respect, otherwise it'll if it is imposed is likely to crash and not culturally or empower ownership of these ICT.
situation with respect to gender some cultures do not accept that women have some participation in agriculture or certain things that have mobile phones or computers, we know that is not correct from our point of view, but it could collide with the leaders or heads of rural households a gender component in the project maybe help change attitudes in the community
I agree with the above list of the obstacles: availability, access, affordability, relevance which includes timeliness, trustworthiness, and usefulness of the content - and then the range of behavioural and social considerations that influence how smallholder farmers make effective use of ICTs and the information/knowledge that can be mobilized on them. The other obstacle I would add based on our experiences with research is TIME. Farmer time to access and use ICTs. A couple examples:
- in Ontario, Canada we found that farm women are true knowledge multitaskers in the family who act as infomediaries - going online to source and send farm related info - complete online forms, arguee the telecoms billing, etc. Women who work off-farm may also use their job-based access to higher speed internet to access online farm-related info; in contrast male farm operators spend less time online and report feeling frustrated with online info access - their preference (not from the studies we've done - only anecdotal - is speed dial on their cell phones to other farmers/agricultural representatives)
- in field studies my students and I have done in Sri Lanka, Ghana and Bangladesh, TIME has been cited as a factor for farmer access to information,, particularly time to participate in listening clubs, communicate with other farmers/seek out and visit NGOs etc.
In your experiences, since agriculture is typically hands-on, field-based work, time can be a genuine obstacle to smallholder farmers' uptake and use of ICTs in agriculture? Those in the costly field of "precision agriculture" (use of high tech, data intensive tools in agriculture) recognize time as a major obstacle (and selling point for "smart agriculture" applications).
I woudl kike to share with you the challenges reported in the e-agriculture 10 year report because it summarizes somewhat many of the contributions so far:
Content. Adaptation of content to local needs, languages and contexts remains challenging. Appropriate information resources (i.e. content) and trusted intermediaries are necessary for success of e-agriculture initiatives. Dissemination of information may be constrained if the nature of information does not match farmers’ needs in terms of format and relevance.
Enabling environment.- Scaling up pilot ICT projects to reach millions of smallholder farmers remains a challenge. Up-scaling and mainstreaming of projects is often not sufficiently supported by dialogues at organizational and national levels so as to create a policy environment that is conducive to the effective use of ICTs in agriculture.
Capacity development. Focus on access to agricultural information without including the ability to effectively use the information has not yet yielded the desired reduction of the rural digital divide. Illiteracy, limited skills in using complex devices and searching for information, cultural issues remain barriers to the effective reception and use of information delivered via ICTs.
Gender and diversity. Access for women, youth, older farmers and people living in most remote areas is hindered by the price of access to ICTs (e.g. broadband or mobile services) and by persistent inequalities. Youth’s access and familiarity with technologies as well as their role in the social dynamics of rural communities are not yet sufficiently leveraged.
Access and participation. Access to ICTs is not yet equitable. A gender-based digital divide persists, and is more frequent in rural than urban areas. Similar to the challenges reported in other key areas, proper design and implementation based on a bottom-up approach that involves the communities themselves can reduce the potential for information inequity that can be created when introducing new ICTs into a community.
Partnerships. Public-private partnerships are recognized as a critical factor in sustainable business models at the community level, but these do not always have to be with large corporate firms: small, local private companies, local producer organizations and community-based NGOs have often the social capital to provide trusted information and good quality services.
Technologies. Identifying the right mix of technologies that are suitable to local needs and contexts is often a challenge, in spite of – or due to - the rapid increase in mobile telephone penetration in rural areas. While this offers great potential for increasing access to information, challenges remain in the area of effective use of mobile telephony that are related to access and capacity as described above.
Financial sustainability. Scaling up pilot ICT projects to reach millions of smallholder farmers and identifying sustainable business models are still challenges. Pricing is critical to sustainable agri-business models at community level. Investments are needed to cover the cost of creating content and collecting data.
During the recent virtual consultation organized by AMARC and FAO on COMDEV, Community media ICTs and family farming, the participants from Africa mentioned the following barriers :
"Low literacy levels
o Low literacy is a serious limiting factor for family farmers as it deprives them from accessing important information that is available in written format.
Poverty and lack of tech skills
o Family farmers being at the bottom of the economic ladder means they cannot afford computers or spend to access the internet at cafes if they were to need information from it. Unfortunately their low tech skills means even when social centers provide free internet, most rural farmers still cannot use it by themselves.
Lack of infrastructure in general and mass communication infrastructure in particular
o There is a need to invest in expanding mobile networks access.
o Lack of electricity, television, internet and community radio stations in most rural communities also pose a problem."
L'une des difficultés majeure est la couverture du territoire national en radio, téléphone, Toutes les zones rurales n'ont pas accès à l'outil de communication. Ce qui est handicap les producteurs dans l'adoption des nouvelles technologies de production et d'avoir accès à temps aux marchés porteurs pour une meilleure commercialisation de leur production.
One of the major difficulties is the national coverage by radio, telephone. Not all rural areas have access to the communication tools.This disables producers in the adoption of new production technologies and in having timely access to the growing markets for better marketing of their products.
Most of the recent information available from researchers is inform of thesis or a paper with complicated terms. This information should be simplified to farmers to be able to understand what the finding of the research were all about.
Its seen all over most of the research finding are just for publication and conferences but no clear Maps on what is expected of the farmer.
Main point is is the packaging of the information itself to be of use to farmers before publishing and disseminating to farmers
El acceso a internet, el disponer de equipos que faciliten labores, la formación y capacitación en esta temáticas, y yo creería que el pasar del conocimiento a la práctica, donde utilice esa información para su beneficio, la implementación de #AgricuturaCreativa.
Access to the internet, the availability of equipment to facilitate work, education and training on these subjects, and I believe that the passage from theory to practice, where you can use information to your advantage, implementing the #AgriculturaCreativa [Creative Agriculture]
Hello from Kenya / Afghanistan
Enna.. yes, we all love the idea of apps and cost can be a challenge but so is the cost of both the smart phone and internet access needed to download them. So my 2 cents....
1. Literacy is still a real challenge especially in arid / semi arid regions where cultures have been more isolated to commercial farming. Classic content via sms may not be the best option unlike IVT etc... And even if they are semi-literate, most of them speak a local dialect that may not support immediate knowledge transfer in the classical form of their "mother" tongue. I found this to be especially true here in East Africa where Swahili is the official language but very few farmers speak classic Swahili and instead speak a bleneded form with their tribal language. So ... this may just be lumped into the feedback Marina gave on "language barrier."
2. Privacy ....This is still a REAL challenge for women especially in markets where they have very little personal privacy, let alone choiice or access to their own or the family's mobile phone.
3. Investment .... That's right. There needs to be more private secor investment. Of course content is a challenge but so is the lack of agreements to reduce the costs Telcos can charge because I have seen some mercenary charges being passed through. To make any model financially self-sustainable, these charges must be absorbed.
4. Sticky content & National campaigns ... Good technical informaiton / advice should be coupled with campaigns from national Ministries . Working in a vaccum doesn't create any stickiness within rural communities.
A little food for thought
Rachel
Ethnic and cultural applicability of ICTs for rural development
Rachel has been a very important fact, do not expect ICT functioned the same everywhere, in some cultures with different languages or dialects in the same region, perhaps modern ICT will not work, not only the language if not also the culture, not we have to see as a barrier, but as something to take intoaccount and respect, otherwise it'll if it is imposed is likely to crash and not culturally or empower ownership of these ICT.
situation with respect to gender some cultures do not accept that women have some participation in agriculture or certain things that have mobile phones or computers, we know that is not correct from our point of view, but it could collide with the leaders or heads of rural households a gender component in the project maybe help change attitudes in the community
walther
I agree with the above list of the obstacles: availability, access, affordability, relevance which includes timeliness, trustworthiness, and usefulness of the content - and then the range of behavioural and social considerations that influence how smallholder farmers make effective use of ICTs and the information/knowledge that can be mobilized on them. The other obstacle I would add based on our experiences with research is TIME. Farmer time to access and use ICTs. A couple examples:
- in Ontario, Canada we found that farm women are true knowledge multitaskers in the family who act as infomediaries - going online to source and send farm related info - complete online forms, arguee the telecoms billing, etc. Women who work off-farm may also use their job-based access to higher speed internet to access online farm-related info; in contrast male farm operators spend less time online and report feeling frustrated with online info access - their preference (not from the studies we've done - only anecdotal - is speed dial on their cell phones to other farmers/agricultural representatives)
- in field studies my students and I have done in Sri Lanka, Ghana and Bangladesh, TIME has been cited as a factor for farmer access to information,, particularly time to participate in listening clubs, communicate with other farmers/seek out and visit NGOs etc.
In your experiences, since agriculture is typically hands-on, field-based work, time can be a genuine obstacle to smallholder farmers' uptake and use of ICTs in agriculture? Those in the costly field of "precision agriculture" (use of high tech, data intensive tools in agriculture) recognize time as a major obstacle (and selling point for "smart agriculture" applications).
Helen
Hello everyone,
I woudl kike to share with you the challenges reported in the e-agriculture 10 year report because it summarizes somewhat many of the contributions so far:
During the recent virtual consultation organized by AMARC and FAO on COMDEV, Community media ICTs and family farming, the participants from Africa mentioned the following barriers :
"Low literacy levels
o Low literacy is a serious limiting factor for family farmers as it deprives them from accessing important information that is available in written format.
Poverty and lack of tech skills
o Family farmers being at the bottom of the economic ladder means they cannot afford computers or spend to access the internet at cafes if they were to need information from it. Unfortunately their low tech skills means even when social centers provide free internet, most rural farmers still cannot use it by themselves.
Lack of infrastructure in general and mass communication infrastructure in particular
o There is a need to invest in expanding mobile networks access.
o Lack of electricity, television, internet and community radio stations in most rural communities also pose a problem."
Mesdames, Messieurs,
L'une des difficultés majeure est la couverture du territoire national en radio, téléphone, Toutes les zones rurales n'ont pas accès à l'outil de communication. Ce qui est handicap les producteurs dans l'adoption des nouvelles technologies de production et d'avoir accès à temps aux marchés porteurs pour une meilleure commercialisation de leur production.
Patrice Yapi N'CHO, Consultant indépendant
One of the major difficulties is the national coverage by radio, telephone. Not all rural areas have access to the communication tools.This disables producers in the adoption of new production technologies and in having timely access to the growing markets for better marketing of their products.
Most of the recent information available from researchers is inform of thesis or a paper with complicated terms. This information should be simplified to farmers to be able to understand what the finding of the research were all about.
Its seen all over most of the research finding are just for publication and conferences but no clear Maps on what is expected of the farmer.
Main point is is the packaging of the information itself to be of use to farmers before publishing and disseminating to farmers
El acceso a internet, el disponer de equipos que faciliten labores, la formación y capacitación en esta temáticas, y yo creería que el pasar del conocimiento a la práctica, donde utilice esa información para su beneficio, la implementación de #AgricuturaCreativa.
Access to the internet, the availability of equipment to facilitate work, education and training on these subjects, and I believe that the passage from theory to practice, where you can use information to your advantage, implementing the #AgriculturaCreativa [Creative Agriculture]