E-Agriculture

The future of Africa’s Agriculture rests with the youth

Research findings by the youth at Mastercard Foundation Rome – Africa is in the height of a crisis and an opportunity. Africa’s population stands at 1,2 billion people and over 60% are below the age of 25. Yet most African youths are not employed, and according to the World Bank by 2035, 350 million new jobs will be needed . Africa’s population is growing faster than jobs are created. There is a potential for agriculture to create employment, however, African youths in Sub-Saharan Africa do not realize agriculture as a profitable opportunity for livelihood. There is a growing notion that the...

Drones on the horizon: Transforming Africa’s Agriculture

The African Union, High Level Panel on Emerging Technologies (APET) and NEPAD have published a report entitled, Drones on the horizon: Transforming Africa’s Agriculture . The report explains how drones are a vital part of precision agriculture and how drones can be used to provide detailed and on-demand data that support decision making by farmers in Africa . The publication of this report is the second high-level commitment by AU to the use of drones in agriculture across the continent. Earlier this year, the African Union’s Executive Council requested the AU and Member States to harness...

AfDB launches the Coding for Employment Program

Unleashing Africa's Next Generation of Digital Innovators The African Development Bank together with The Rockefeller Foundation, Microsoft, and Facebook have launched the Coding for Employment Program during the African Innovation Summit in Kigali, Rwanda. The program will prepare the youth for...
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e-Agriculture Webinar on Talking Books for Audio-Based Agriculture Extension

On the 5th of June 2018 the e-Agriculture team in conjunction with AMPLIO organized a webinar on Talking Books for Audio-Based Agriculture Extension. Abstract Knowledge empowers farmers to grow enough food to feed and provide for their families, but millions who live in remote areas and lack...
Blog Post04.06.2018
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Podcasting to improve food security and nutrition

A case study in Guruve and Mt Darwin, Zimbabwe under the Ensuring Nutrition, Transforming and Empowering Rural Farmers and Promoting Resilience in Zimbabwe (ENTERPRIZE) program

by Innocent Kafembe

Guruve Zimbabwe, 2018 -The Zimbabwe Livelihoods and Food Security Programme (LFSP) is improving the food security and nutrition of smallholder farmers and rural communities in Zimbabwe. Under this grant from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Mercy Corps in partnership with World Vision is running the ‘Ensuring Nutrition, Transforming and Empowering Rural Farmers and Promoting Resilience in Zimbabwe (ENTERPRIZE) program which seeks to mobilise and support multi-stakeholder partnerships and community-based groups, grow local capacity, and work within existing systems to stimulate demand for and support equitable access to private and public products and services which contribute to lasting improvements in the productivity, profitability, resilience and nutrition of small holder farmers.

This program has been rolling out audio podcasting since November 2017. The content for these podcasts is developed by content development teams, from either of the two districts namely Guruve and Mt. Darwin and they comprise extension personnel from ministries of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development (MAMID). Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development (WAGCD) as well as the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MHCC).

The team meets once a month to gather technical information, develop script, critique the script and produce audio recordings Agriculture Extension officers have been at the forefront of using this method to reach out to as many community members and farmers as possible. Content review panels are responsible for developing scripts and audio recordings in line with the progression of the farming season, the nutrition behaviour change message for a particular month as well as monthly and yearly gender themes from a national context.

To-date, a total of 2, 148 smallholder farmers that is 1, 276 males and 872 females who produce cattle, goats, sugar bean, cowpea and groundnut have accessed nutrition, gender, agriculture production and marketing-oriented advisory information services through listening to at-least one audio podcast with a nutrition, gender, marketing or agriculture-oriented theme (Table 1 ).

Table 1: total number of participants accessing advisory tips through audio podcasts

District Summary of program participants accessing advisory information via Audio podcasts

Males

April

Cumulative

Males

Females

April

Cumulative

Females

Total 

April

Cumulative

Total

Proportion

(%)

Guruve 109 607 46 390 155 997 46
Mt. Darwin 184 669 127 482 311 1,151 54
Total 293 1,276 173 872 466 2,148 100
Proportion (%) 63 59 37 41 100 100  

Audio-podcasting is being used as a method to scale outreach and amplify technical advisory services provision. The e-extension method is being utilized as a way of complementing other extension advisory channels being utilized by the program.

The program officially handed over 19 sets of hardware equipment to the Ministry of Agriculture in Mt. Darwin and 11 sets of hard ware equipment to the same ministry in Guruve district. Even though the Crops and Livestock Production Department within MAMID are the custodians of the audio podcasting hardware equipment, the equipment is shared or used jointly with nutrition ward coordinators (NWCs) from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and ward development coordinators.

This has in the process contributed towards the integration of program components and nutrition and gender oriented issues in agriculture are being incorporated in advisory information disseminated via audio podcasts. Wards accessing audio podcasts services include 10 commercial value chain wards of Guruve District and 12 from Mt. Darwin District.

To date results gathered indicate that participants are accessing technical advisory services via podcasts during agricultural production meetings and community meetings at village and ward levels, some have also created agriculture development groups within their communities in which they meet to access information from the podcasts. A total of 26 audio podcasts with 7 focusing on nutrition, another 7 on gender and 12 being agriculture-oriented were developed and shared across the districts including for e-extension platforms such as WhatsApp groups for downstream dissemination to farming families.

Mr Chipfunde is one of the 21 smallholder farmers, 8 men and 13 women who form the Hurudza Farmer group in Guruve District, Zimbabwe. This group was formed to ensure farmers in this community have a communal village savings and loans platform and also a structure to learn and share best practices. Mr Chipfunde is excited about the podcasts that his group has managed to access which covered agricultural and nutritional information that they then invited the local Agricultural extension officer to do a presentation for their group.

“ I am learning ideas on how to turn my farming into a business with ideas from production to marketing and my wife is now a lead mother imparting knowledge on child health and nutrition gained from the podcasts to other mothers in this village and beyond” he says.

Improved access to a diverse pool of audio content among farmers is expected to accelerate provision and access to production and marketing information thereby increasing food security and enabling better livelihoods for smallholder farmers under this program.

Topics: 
Research, information and knowledge sharingradiovideoextension-advisory servicesextensionistsfarmerswomenyouth

ICTforAg 2018 : An interesting agenda ahead

ICTforAg 2018 annual conference brings together 300 practitioners and decision makers in agriculture and international development . This year’s edition seeks to focus on new ICT solutions that can boost the productivity of both smallholder farmers and agricultural markets systems. ICTforAg is supported by Abt Associates , DAI , FHI 360 , and RTI International . The conference will focus on three areas:- Market systems Technological innovation, and Crisis Response A glimpse of the agenda The agenda reveals that this edition will focus on real challenges faced by farmers and other stakeholders...

The East African Digital Farmers Conference and Exhibition 2018 (EADFC)

The regional conference seeks to help farmers and other value chain actors to harness the benefits of technology and data, and drive the adoption of these digital tools by farmers. It bring together end users, service providers, disseminators,...
Kenya, Nairobi

Day 1: Major challenges from a policy legal and ethical perspective, preventing smallholder farmers benefiting from data sharing

Which major gaps and challenges would you identify in the current scenario from a policy, legal and ethical perspective, which prevent smallholder farmers and communities from benefiting from data-driven agriculture?

1a: Challenges related to accessing data
1b: Challenges related to sharing data

Please focus on the policy, legal and ethical challenges. State the major challenges in a concise and general way, but if possible provide specific examples and say which actors are involved (who benefits, who doesn’t, which actors are perceived as not fulfilling their role).
Focus on the challenges at this stage, not the possible solutions.


Quelles sont les principales lacunes et difficultés identifiées dans le scénario actuel d'un point de vue politique, juridique et éthique, qui empêchent les petits agriculteurs et les communautés de tirer parti de l'agriculture axée sur les données?  

1a: Défis liés à l'accès aux données 
1b: Défis liés au partage de données   

Veuillez-vous concentrer sur les défis politiques, juridiques et éthiques. Énoncez les principaux défis de manière concise et générale, mais si possible, donnez des exemples précis et indiquez quels acteurs sont impliqués (qui en bénéficie, qui ne le fait pas, quels acteurs sont perçus comme ne remplissant pas leur rôle).  
Focus sur les défis à ce stade, pas les solutions possibles. 


Cuáles son los mayores vacíos y retos que Usted identifica en el escenario actual desde una perspectiva política, legal y ética, que impiden a pequeños agricultores y comunidades beneficiarse de la agricultura basada en datos?

1a: Retos relacionados con el acceso a los datos                 
1b: Retos relacionados con compartir los datos     

Por favor enfóquese en los retos políticos, legales y éticos. Mencione los mayores retos de manera concisa, y de ser posible, de ejemplos específicos y mencione qué actores están involucrados (quiénes se benefician, quiénes no y qué actores se consideran que no cumplen del todo con su rol)Concéntrese en los retos y no en dar posibles soluciones.                

 

Day 3: Long-term ethical, legal and policy changes needed to move from the current scenario to the desired scenarios

What are the long-term ethical, legal and policy changes that need to happen to move from the current scenario towards the desired scenarios?

Examples:

  • Ethical: what are the ethical questions we should make to contribute to increase food and nutrition security and better livelihoods of the poorest and most vulnerable farmers around the world by harnessing their access to and use of agricultural data? How should our mindset change in the long term about data rights? Should data rights be recognized as human rights? Should we still consider receiving a service in exchange for surrendering data an ethically acceptable business model?
  • Legal: what do you think are the best legal approaches to achieve the desired scenarios? How to recognize and implement farmers’ intellectual property rights over their data and traditional knowledge? How should the licensing scenario change?
  • Policy: what strategies and priority areas of intervention would you recommend at the policy level? Do you think there should be more governance and by whom? Do you think international agreements could help?

Changements éthiques, juridiques et politiques nécessaires à long terme pour passer du scénario actuel aux scénarios souhaités.   

Quels sont les changements éthiques, juridiques et politiques à long terme qui doivent être apportés pour passer du scénario actuel aux scénarios souhaités?  

Exemples: 

  • Éthique: quelles sont les questions éthiques que nous devrions poser pour contribuer à accroître la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle et améliorer les moyens de subsistance des agriculteurs les plus pauvres et les plus vulnérables du monde en exploitant l’accès et l’utilisation des données agricoles? Comment notre état d'esprit devrait-il changer à long terme en ce qui concerne les droits relatifs aux données? Les droits sur les données devraient-ils être reconnus en tant que droits de l'homme? Devrions-nous toujours envisager de recevoir un service en échange de la remise de données, un modèle d'entreprise éthiquement acceptable?    
  • Juridique: quelles sont selon vous les meilleures approches juridiques pour réaliser les scénarios souhaités? Comment reconnaître et mettre en œuvre les droits de propriété intellectuelle des agriculteurs sur leurs données et leurs savoirs traditionnels? Comment le scénario de licence devrait-il changer?  
  • Politique: quelles stratégies et domaines prioritaires d'intervention recommanderiez-vous au niveau des politiques? Pensez-vous qu'il devrait y avoir plus de gouvernance et par qui? Pensez-vous que les accords internationaux pourraient aider?    

Cuáles son los cambios que se requieren a largo plazo a nivel ético, legal y político para transformar el escenario actual en los escenarios deseados?

Ejemplos:

  • Éticos Cuáles son las preguntas éticas que debemos hacernos para contribuir a aumentar la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional y mejorar las condiciones de vida de los agricultores más pobres y vulnerable, a través de mejorar su acceso y uso de datos agrícolas? Cómo debería cambiar nuestra percepción a largo plazo sobre los derechos sobre los datos? Deberían reconocerse los derechos sobre los datos como derechos humanos? Deberíamos considerar el recibir un servicio a cambio de la entrega de datos como un modelo económico ético aceptable? 
  • Legal: Cuáles piensa Usted que son las mejores aproximaciones legales para alcanzar los escenarios deseados? Cómo reconocer e implementar los derechos de propiedad intelectual de los agricultores sobre sus datos y conocimiento tradicional? Cómo debería cambiar el escenario actual de las licencias? 
  • Político: Qué estrategias y áreas prioritarias de intervención recomendaría a nivel político? Cree Usted que debería haber mayor gobernanza y por quién? Cree Usted que acuerdos internacionales puedan ayudar?