Country cases
Since its first implementations, the DSP has been expanding to better adapt to the growing needs of the countries in which it has been rolled out in different national and local contexts.
Egypt
The FAO app El Mufeed, launched in 2019, has been built through a participatory approach, with inputs from farmers and rural women that took part in an inception workshop that was divided into five thematic groups. Local leaders and local NGOs also played an important role to ensure that the chosen contents fit the targeted audiences.
A successful promotional campaign was launched to expand the use of the app in the country, which was recommended for replication in other countries. It included social media (Facebook) and the FAO Twitter account has also been added to the contents of El Mufeed to keep users updated with the latest news of FAO activities in Egypt. The country rollout added themes such as Citrus Production, Date Palm Production, Healthy Nutrition and Household Poultry Production in 2019- under the project “Inclusive rural Information and communication services for agricultural innovation and resilient family farming in the NENA region- and a COVID-19 food safety theme following the onset of the 2020 pandemic to better respond to the specific needs of the users.
Senegal
Senegal was one of the first pilot countries to implement the DSP. In November 2016, FAO launched the Agricultural Services and Digital Inclusion in Africa initiative in French, with corresponding pilot phases in Rulindo, Rwanda, and Tambacounda, Senegal. The initial four apps are now five with the recently added COVID-19 app.
Digitalization of agriculture in Senegal between 2019 and 2022 has shown the strong focus of agricultural technological developments in Africa. Digitalization initiatives include the e-advisory services "Agricultural Services and Digital Inclusion in Africa" (SAIDA) promoted by FAO, the e-commerce platform Senlouma, produced by the National Consulting Agency Agricultural and Rural (ANCAR) with FAO support, and the GIS-driven E-Tolbi platform, created by Senegalese Presidential Award winner start-up Tolbi, specifically aimed at creating jobs for young people and women.
These initiatives implemented by ANCAR allow real-time access to silvipastoral production information adapted to climate change with SAIDA, satellite imagery and artificial intelligence-driven advice with E-Tolbi, and to a virtual market facilitating the purchase of inputs and the sale of production with Senlouma.
The ongoing popularization of these platforms in the Senegalese agricultural world will favour job creation for young people, who will be better equipped with a knowledge of digital media, and therefore more able to take charge of the training of producers. All platforms also target a minimum of 30 percent women among beneficiaries.
Partnerships, including institutions:
- ANCAR: FAO in Senegal relied on ANCAR for the implementation of SAIDA. ANCAR has worked with the following structures:
- Afrikinnovations (an African company working in the development of rural areas).
- Tolbi Co (an African company working in the digitalization of African agriculture)
- ANACIM (National Agency for Civil Aviation and Meteorology)
- ARM (Market Regulation Agency).
Projects and Results
- 955 technical advice messages distributed in text (web and SMS) and audio (web) format, located in rural areas, at the end of 2022.
- 6 local languages (Bassari, Diola, Mandingue, Poular, Serer, Wolof) plus French and English.
- The 1000 Digital Villages Initiative has chosen Senegal as a pilot area in 2021.
Rwanda
Rwanda was among the first pilot countries to launch the DSP implementation to improve productivity and efficiency in 2017. It contributed to the implementation of the National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategy for Rwanda Agriculture (ICT4RAgric 2016–2020) and the Smart Rwanda master plan (2015–2020) on accelerating agricultural transformation from subsistence-based to market-oriented agriculture, using ICT as an enabler in this process. In July 2020, it launched the COVID-19 app. Implementation is ongoing, with training of trainers (ToT) and several capacity-building exercises in pilot areas.
Rwanda national leaders are investing heavily in IT infrastructure, especially in the agriculture sector. With support from FAO Digitalization and Informatics Division, FAO in Rwanda works in a conducive environment to bring agriculture services as close as possible to rural farmers by using the digital service portfolio.
The DSP journey has been very promising and encouraging. As mentioned by the young Rwandan farmers who are benefiting from FAO’s four digital applications (DSP) for information on markets, treating and feeding their livestock, the production, conservation, and consumption of nutritious food, and the weather and crop calendar, the roll out of the DSP in Rwanda is really showing that ‘we cannot accept being subdued by shocks and hazards’.
Even though some challenges still need to be tackled, such as the significant number of farmers without smart phones who can benefit only in part from the DSP, a low digital literacy rate and internet costs that are still high, FAO Rwanda invites different partners to help farmers to turn these challenges around. For example, under the One UN Rwanda Joint Project funded by the Peacebuilding Fund, FAO is playing a catalytic role in peace-building in Great Lakes by supporting the economic empowerment of women and youth in cross-border communities. Rwandan women farmers who are in agribusiness, selling food commodities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, were given pre-installed DSP smart phones and six-month internet bundles to facilitate their cross-border trade by adopting e-commerce practices and accessing information and knowledge available in the DSP for better production and market information.
United Republic of Tanzania
”Ugani Kiganjani” (Extension services in the palm of your hand) complements other digital services portfolios in the country aiming to serve farmers, livestock keepers, fishermen, etc., including M-Kilimo (text-based mobile extension services from the Ministry of Agriculture) and Event Mobile Application (EMA-i), the FAO mobile app for real time animal disease field reporting to enhance surveillance and response.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC) and the Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA), DSP themes were filled with messages for roll-out with four main themes: Weather Forecast and Advisory, Livestock and Fishery, AgriMarketplace (information being regularly updated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade) and e-NutriFood.
Several pilot sessions have been introducing Ugani Kiganjani for its potential contribution in addressing the shortage of extension officers and services experienced by farmers and livestock keepers at the local level in various districts (Magu, Korogwe). Participants also discuss complementarity and linkage with other digital services portfolios used for crop farming, livestock keeping, fisheries and aquaculture at the district and regional levels
Interest has been shown to pursue the app roll out in Zanzibar and support market information systems for increased frequency of timely reporting to the general public by relevant authorities in the country, through the DSP. Its operationalization and further use of its capabilities, as well as assistance with other tools like the Food Price Monitoring Analysis (FPMA) is ongoing.
Jordan
Since its first implementations, the DSP has been expanding to better adapt to the growing needs of the countries in which it has been rolled out in different national and local contexts
The DSP in Jordan is called Ma’ Al Muzare’ – NARC and is being rolled out in collaboration with the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC). It was launched on 23 June 2021 after one year of intensive work in both Arabic and English. Through the FAO project “Development of digital technology transfer tools to foster climate and shock resilient agriculture in Jordan in the context of COVID-19”, Jordan is currently implementing 5 services: Animal Husbandry, Crop Calendar (currently including 47 crops), Harvest & Postharvest, AgriMarketplace, and an Expert to Farmer Forum. More projects are underway with schools, universities and farmers´ associations for further education on DSP use.
Some specificities of the Jordan services below:
- Harvest and Postharvest provides information on: Harvesting, Packaging, Storage, Transportation, Post-Harvest disorders
- Farmer to Farmer: It provides the farmer with the ability to post questions and receive expert advice from governmental appointed agricultural experts, post success stories, upload photos and videos and receive feedback from other farmers. This engagement will help farmers build a local network which could result in increased production and household income.
Iraq
The project was completed in October 2022 where the app was configured/customized by FAO division of Digitalization and Informatics, and content is now ready to be launched with three themes: AgriMarketplace, Plant production, Livestock and the Farmer´s Forum. The application is called “El Rafidain for Agriculture Extension” and is presented in three languages: Arabic, English and Kurdish.
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Bangladesh
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Bangladesh has been using the DSP framework to develop an app for fresh markets, adding new capabilities, replicating the behaviour of Google Maps.
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
Since October 2022, FAO division of Digitalization and Informatics has been working with FAO Investment centre on a new project in two countries - to deliver messages to small-scale livestock farmers on meat and dairy production, animal health and market information. It will include Animal Feed Balance Sheet to assist with animal feed composition. Interest has also been shown to pursue support for food security early warning and market.
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Maghreb countries
Under the Digital Village Initiative, an important meeting was held for the introduction of DSP to Maghreb countries (Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia) has been organized and preparation steps for a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture in Tunisia to introduce the DSP and start the development process of the app are ongoing.