Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

Information and communication technologies and people making choices

Everyone wants to share in that development dream and, according to recent UNDP reporting, the majority of people worldwide are well on their way of achieving it. In the race to develop, however, previous lifestyles and the systems upon which they were once based are being abandoned. Urbanization of human society across the globe is leading change concerning everything and not simply choice of foods and traditional methods of food production.

On micro-scale, there may be value with the resilience of these earlier systems – for those who fail to develop, fail to investment, remain ill-informed and/or fall outside modern trends of socio-economic development. The next generation – living in that town or city, providing services or manufacturing, earning a salary and exploring those personal responsibilities with freedom from archaic systems – is far too busy looking forward to be concerned about the past.

Technologies in the service of people

To the layman, it must seem as if the society around them has divided into two distinct groups of people; those who have embraced the extent of new IC technologies that have become increasingly available (and affordable) during the past 30 years – as the personal computer has taken centre stage in many lives – and those who largely ignore developments of this kind and continue to remain with out-dated (i.e. non-electronic) systems – for all manner of reasons. You can’t explore all the variations around this kind of statement in a brief introduction but, by default, those of you reading my contribution will probably be part of the former group; and constantly challenged by the routine updating required of modern systems (and the money needed to do so).

Look around you at the agricultural industries that you represent and, perhaps, note the growing division between those who embrace the changes that developments in IC technology provide and those who continue to ignore them. If you service industries/people in the low-income countries you will know of the need to ‘move mountains’ to enable the majority people to participate.

Modern worlds have also become increasingly divided between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’; with Gini coefficients that continue to show the dynamics of the changes involved with minorities becoming richer at the expense of the masses. (Check out South Africa, the Seychelles, Haiti and others, for example).[1]

All of which leads to the use of technologies with which to bridge gaps, improve lives, boost efficiency and more – an approach which is accepted by most people notwithstanding the difficulties with taking part. Not for nothing are we living through a period of technical evolution that will change our working and living patterns; the opportunities eventually provided by ‘artificial intelligence’ will shape the world around us.

Automated technologies will put people alongside software agents, robots and other services that were previously unimaginable; people and machines in partnership will boost productivity and enable people to work more efficiently – a step up from the machine as simply an alternative to muscle power.

The socio-economic changes that these developments will bring with employment, new industries, and new ways of thinking/investing are already visible in the changes around you – but more obvious in the industrial countries. Previously viable economic sectors have declined leaving behind, for example, the infamous ‘rust-belt cities/suburbs’ as one indication of the importance of long-term planning on the part of the national authorities.

Urbanization

So what’s changed during the past 50 years; and more so during the past 20 years? In a couple of words: the ‘Middle classes’ have been discovered everywhere. Once a feature of the industrial countries, this particular group of people can now be found in all kinds of places where they were once least expected; meaning wherever stability has provided people with opportunities for investing their time, intellect and lives. Middle class people invest in their society; and this comes from the opportunities provided by a reasonably capable government and a buoyant economy.

Check out the report from UNDP[2] of March 2013, and their projections of around half the world’s people expected to join the ‘middle classes’ by 2020, and ponder the ramifications of more than one million households worldwide with an income of >US$20,000 annually (60% of which will be in Asia). Sure, this report is now more than three years old, but the trends shown remain valid.

The report lists Laos, Mongolia and Bangladesh in addition to India and China. Elsewhere Turkey, Rwanda, Ghana, Mexico and others are shown – in total >30 countries currently considered within that rather out-dated descriptor ‘developing countries’ will have shifted appreciably up the socio-economic scale.

And then project forward a few more years to 2030 when estimated 80% of the world’s population of middle class people will be expected to be living in those same transition countries. And it doesn’t stop there – for the report suggests these same national governments will, collectively, hold more than twice the financial reserves of the industrial countries; in total close on US$7 trillion. Consider the impact that this will have on social development – healthcare, education, empowerment of women and more; and the juxtaposition that this will bring to global investment, decision-making and more.

Passion fruit production in Burundi

Abstract text is one thing, however, reality quite different. Take the example of passion fruit production in Burundi. Two years back we explored value chains in a handful of crops/enterprises including passion fruit that showed investment promise. What constraints existed, what could be done to overcome them, how to boost production and so on.

Constraints and solutions were tabulated within seven complementary sectors one of which was ‘Technological/product development’. In summary, this described the paucity of technical capabilities on the part of growers, producer organizations and those who advised them; people everywhere within the industry remained ill-informed. Change was needed with investment in hardware, training and management; and the adoption of GAPs & GMPs. People needed access to a portal with which to do so. Burundi passion fruit people were recommended to follow selected field practices in Uganda & Kenya with use of mobile phones.

That is easy to say, but hard to do quickly - given the extent of mobile phone use in Burundi. The country has been slow to embrace the use of mobile phones as a means of boosting infrastructure/facilities/information/services available to people outside the main urban areas. Unlike others in the East African Community (EAC) where there are estimated 50 million phones available representing 40 percent penetration of local markets, uptake in Burundi covers <10 percent of the national population (i.e. around 1 million people). The issues are many – high costs, inadequate power supplies, poverty, few private sector investors, etc. Recent membership of the EAC should eventually ensure that the revolution in e-services (including banking, cash-free purchasing, information exchange and more) enjoyed by people elsewhere will eventually become available to people in Burundi[3].

And, whilst Burundi is not yet a member of the 21 Pacific Rim countries that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries, it is worth pointing out that the current five-year investment plan underway (and due for completion 2017) for passion fruit production in Australia was noted - with emphasis upon public and private sector investment, competition from cheaper fruit producers and the importance of dietary demand and climate change underway.

Timely and high quality information provides the basis for choice; then you need to communicate with people.

Peter Steele

Melbourne