What are the potential entry points for government to address challenges and foster the development of digital agriculture?
There is need to develop either toll-free lines to capture information and share information with local farmers, or have a free text messaging system because majority of farmers have access to a mobile phone, and in most communities there is someone who can either read and interprete the message or have the message sent in the language of that particular region. Say for instance in Nigeria, information is Hausa Language is generally understood in the north, Yoruba in the West, and Igbo in the Eastern region. There are other languages depending on the region. This can be used to register farmers, share information like fertilizer availability, availability of seedlings, capacity development initiatives, latest information, at no cost to the farmers.
UNICEF's U-Report was implemented in Nigeria some time back, am not sure about now, and it was effective to spread news, capture polls, learn from the people what is important to them, and it helped shape UNICEFs work in country.
Also, there is the need to provide a channel where the farmers can provide feedbacks and respond.
The government could set-up a project team comprising farmers, CSOs, private sector and a small team from the government, while FAO monitors the process and holds them to account.
How can the establishment of the Digital Council address the numerous barriers to adoption of these technologies?
A digital council can address the numerous barriers to adoption of these technologies by forming a country teams with focal committee not just one focal person from the government. A farmer can connect with another farmer. There is the need for an independent team with people that can relate with the farmers on that country team.
There is the need to build local capcity of team members in-country, to manage communication with the people.
Do you think that the roles identified for the Digital Council are suitable for facing the agrifood systems challenges outlined above?
These roles identified is great, but there is need for country or regional representation in the advisory team, and add country teams in the working groups or regional groups. What will the composition of the team be? there is the need to have a greater portion of the teams, groups to be very independent of influence by national government to get the near true picture and implementation of the project.
We can also have other donor agencies send focal persons as members of the council with observer status to report to their organizations, this will make them feel part of the council, and also strengthen coordination and build capacity of local actors.
There is also the need to build capacity of the persons and groups of persons. There is need for country, regional and sub-regional consultation to feed into the overall goal of the design.
What governance structure should be in place in order for the Council to serve its purpose?
Select independent council members from ALL the regions of the world. FAO's country office or regional offices can serve the purpose of administrative and virtual meetings.
In 2010, I was channel manager for Microsoft to manage breath partners Northern Nigeria, my line manager was in Lagos, had a colleague in Ghana, we had more of our meetings virtual, and sent activity reports from the Microsoft offices in Abuja, Nigeria, and Accra, Ghana, coordinated by our manager in Lagos, Nigeria. The team small, but had wide coverage, most of the administrative cost were managed by the country offices, and there was an upsurge of interest as more partners felt the impact of Microsoft, I even had the opportunity to host partners in the Microfsoft Office to handle technical difficulties.
I understand that FAO can be really complex, but a similar approach could help, and besides, other multilateral agencies have their offices in-country, like the Worldbank, EU, DFID, aside the United Nations (FAO).
Please add any other comment or relevant content you think should be included in the Concept Note.
Increasingly, organizations are relying more on independent technical expertise of inidivuals in the regions or countries that they are most needed, it saves cost, expand reach, and helps to identify local actors to improve the process.
I will be happy to be part of the council, and will be more than happy to contribut technical skills and expertise to connect more farmers to boast food security using technology.
Currently, there are over 160 million active mobile phone lines in Nigeria, and there lies huge potential to connect more people with tools and resources to empower them towards a prosperous hunger-free, poverty alliviated future.
Г-н John Ede