Question 1 (opens 25 Feb.)

I am of the view of that ICT policy strategies for the agricultural sector is as important for any ACP country as there are general ICT policies to bring about intended change or development. The reality is most broader ICT policies failed to provide a comprehensive view of issues particularly for countries where Agriculture is the main contributor to GDP.
 
My rationale for ICT strategies target for the agricultural sector are;

1. There is much greater potential for Agriculture to benefit from ICTs if properly done. More than enough evidence currently show the potential and impact ICTs have on the agricultural sector ad hoc nature of policy directives
2. To realise the huge impact of ICTs in Agriculture, there MUST be systematic effort in planning to ensure judicious use of scare resource.
3. A two pronged approach to needed to facilitate and harness the fully benefits of ICTs in Agriculture. The first approach fuelled mostly by farmers, young enterprising individuals and the private sector is already in full force. The second, which is government lead is currently ad hoc and needs streamlining.

Sanjay Sembhoo from Mauritius.


I think in today's world, farmers should be considered as entrepreneurs. That their agricultural activity should be valorised and be considered as a business.

Like any business to be started and to flourish, the entrepreneur needs informatuion or knowledge based products (immediately applicable information). The entrepreneur needs updated information, in a timely manner and in ways accessible with ease.

From here, it would seem logical that, any government having at its heart food security of its nation, should implement e-agriculture strategies to support / accompany the farming community with any form of information / knowledge packages that would actually act as decision support systems.

The other philosophy is at macro economic level. In general, any country's economy starts with the agricultural sector. As other sectors grow, agriculture needs to be sustained to help the other sectors bloom. As thee economy strengthens, literacy level goes up. Traditional agriculture and traditional labour gradually phases out.

This is where e-agriculture can play a massive role. We need to recognise that e-agriculture hasd the capacity to inspire and support the new generation of farmers such that agriculture becomes a competitive sector alongside other pillars like tourism and manufacturing industry. At no point in time, must we let agriculture be drained and weakened vis a vis other sectors.

we mostly ignore and almost do not recognize the contributions and benefits of e agriculture because we normally look at it from the consumption or rather output point of view, i think if we look at e agriculture as an input / enabler for agriculture then we may see the whole lot of the benefits. the problem with society(most farmer especially those who practice subsistence or self suffiency farming) is that they tend to ignore on the efficience in operation that ICT intergrated farming systems can bring. Fact is that such systems are mostly found in the intensive system in the peri urban farming. we need governments to make it known that farmers can benefit from having there system inergrated in ICT example:

• record handling
• farm accounting systems
• there enterprise/farm resource management system in this case the farm system

we have systems that are ment to serve the purpose and we can start by naming but a few so that we can understand the benefits hence national e- agriculture policies

Development in any sector requires proper planning based on existing situation,resoureces,constraints and prospects.Use of e-agriculture may be fruitful for a country if it is properly placed in the context of
existing capacity and expected development.It may not be possible to fix the e-agriculture strategies at higher level  unless reqisite technological and finacial capacity are  attained.There must be proper evaluation after introduction of any e-agricultural intervention in a particulr area to see how effective the intervention.
It would be wise to introduce e-agriculture intervention in pilot or small scale at the beginning and expanding to larger areas based on the evaluation.
Many factors should be considered in finalizing e-agriculture strategies.Technological,financial,cultural,geographical and environmental aspects are few of them.Any country can't afford to introduce the e-agricultural interventions just on whims.Creation of efficient manpower,infrastructure and relevant policy will take considerable investment,expertise and time.
In view of all these points,I strongly feel that  e-agriculture strategies is needed for the agricultural sector to fully realize the benefits of ICTs.

Dear participants, I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this forum. As with the development of any activity, economic and/or social, their success and/or future viability is dependent on the strategies that are employed. Here in Jamaica we have developed national strategies to achieve economic first world status by 2030. As a result each sector has strategies that feed into the national strategic plan, Vision 2030. So there is an agricultural sector strategy. Inherent to this is the need for an e-agriculture strategy to enable the sector to maximize the benefits of ICTs. This has become necessary as the business of agriculture has become borderless. Stakeholders in the industry must move to embrace this development in order to position themselves to become a part of this new normal. The agricultural sector cannot afford to operate in silos. National e-agriculture strategy formulation, implementation and operation will be a stakeholder consensus and ownership initiative. Its importance is critical to: 1. Economic and social development; 2. Viability of agricultural business; 3. Empowerment through knowledge transfer to farmers and other industry stakeholders and interests; 4. Embracing and employing technology to transform the sector. Looking forward other views and feedback.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this discussion. In answer to the question posed, e-agriculture strategies are indeed needed for the agricultural sector because while national ICT strategies may provide general direction a specific strategy for the agricultural sector allows for more specific articulation. It also allows the stakeholders in the agricultural sector to internalise and own the process. It is however important to ensure that the e-agriculture strategies are developed in a way that is coherent and consistent with national development plans and national ICT strategies.
As has been noted by some discussants, most countries have national ICT strategies which directly or indirectly make references to agriculture.  The question I would like to pose is: were stakeholders from the agriculture sector consulted prior to these issues being put in the ICT strategy?  Coming from Malawi I am glad that to see the contribution from Henry and happy to see that the Ministry of Agriculture is tracking developments on the national ICT strategy; however, it would appear that there is little involvement of the ministry in the actual development of the strategy.
A second issue that is worth highlighting has to do with implementation and follow-up. I think that we are very good at developing strategies but implementation becomes a bit of a challenge. So, when we develop e-agriculture strategies we need to carefully think through the implementation and this is why it is important to ensure that all key stakeholders are involved in the process.
There has been mention of regional strategies and I think that this is also a good idea. The issue at hand is whether the strategies should be developed top-down or bottom up i.e. should national strategies be informed by regional strategies or vice versa? My initial thoughts are that regional strategies should inform national strategies; however the prioritisation of issues at regional level should take into account national aspirations. Also, regional strategies should aim to address issues that are best dealt with at regional level and leave room for national strategies to deal with more localised issues at country-level.
Another aspect that should be considered when developing e-strategies is the measures and indicators of progress – how will we know how well or badly we are doing? How will we know what interventions need to be made as we are implementing our strategies to ensure that we achieve the desired targets?

Definitely, our friends from the Pacific and Indian Ocean islands (Sanjay here and Anju earlier) have very much a business oriented view of the agricultural sector. From that perspective, it seem e-agriculture strategy should strive to organize the sector as a competitive industry.

It is a great point to insist that any strategy build on actual current status and existing capacity ('zabedin54'), hence the crucial need for a proper and honest evaluation both at the beginning and at the end of the process. A strategy should be about taking the entity concerned from the actual current status A to an attainable status B at some point in the future through workable objectives.

Clearly then, indicators for measuring progress are crucial as evaluation tools (Towela). In all the strategies we are discussing are there always included such instruments for measuring progress? What kind of indicators, benchmarks or other instruments are included in those strategies and actually used in implementation? At any rate how is progress measured?

Otherwise stated: It may feel good to say there is a need for a strategy and ICTs need to be applied to agriculture, but do we always start from and build on the actual capacity (social, economical, financial, technical, cultural, etc.) on the ground and do we set reasonable/attainable objectives based on that capacity? And then how do we document accurately the performance achieved at implementation?

I had the honor to participate at different levels to reflect on the e-strategy in Burkina Faso as a consultant and as a member of social society with Yam Pukri

Burkina Faso has started early this reflection on the national vision for ICT. That is why after having established the National Center for information processing in the 1970s, a department was created in 1997 with the creation of DELGI responsible to initiate e-governance in Burkina Faso.

I participated in 1998-1999 in the general debate on ICTs and national development. Broad participation was requested and anyone could send their ideas in written format to DELGI on what he thinks as appropriate in the context of national e. This consultation has been extended in all regions and at all levels (private, public, NGO ...)

As the process was long, UNDP has supported the meantime Burkina approach with smaller where I also participated in the study on the establishment of community telecentres in Burkina Faso. There was also a governance component, multimedia, and other educations.

UNDP process was blocked by lack of resources to conduct the approach that relied on external funds.

In 2004, after intensive consultations and a national conference that brings together technical and financial partners, the government and NGO's and the private sector, the government adopted a national strategy for ICT based on 6 axes. This strategy was juxtaposed with the strategic framework to fight against poverty. In fact, ICT should come and help the national strategy to fight against poverty.

Although aging adopted, no action left this document.

In 2009, we were again called to consider a possible readjustment of the e-strategy. I was responsible for leading the debate on e-services to the rural world. After extensive consultations and implications of more than 10 ministery departments, technical and financial partners, NGOs and other stakeholders, this plan was adopted in 2010.

We are in 2013 and nothing has been done.

I must say that we had a change of ministry. New technologies were under the direction of DELGI which itself has disappeared with the creation of the Ministry of ICT and post in 2004. this department was merged with the Ministry of Transport to form the Department of the digital economy and the Post in 2010. The ministry has changed again and became the Department of Development of the digital economy at the end of 2012.

Changes between these departments and practice every day, we must say that the government has been very ambitious with the different programs and the urgent need has led to the implementation of concrete actions and smaller projects .

Therefore whenever aditive studies already carried to adjust to the needs of the moment. Non fundraising may also explain the perpetual recommencement of the e-strategy.

NGOs and other private or public structures or telcoms continue , at their own levels to take action on the ground and certain actions affect the rural domain. For example, the implementation system of money transfers via mobile comes resolve monetary exchanges in rural areas. Projects such as those undertaken by the consortium C4C arrive at local levels to conduct substantive action on the ground, waiting for marge action by the government.

An e-strategy oriented rural and agriculture should go fast with its implementation after having the consent of the whole population, if not, the technology changing at a faster rate than strategies. The state did not want to go into adventures therefore, they only repeat studies to make adjustments.

The implementation of an e-agricultural strategy should take into account the national strategy for food security. This sector is about national sovereignty and to do this should be largely financed by the national budget. This is the only way that everything can get very quickly after adopting plans.

 

I had the honor to participate at different levels to reflect on the e-strategy in Burkina Faso as a consultant and as a member of social society with Yam Pukri

Burkina Faso has started early this reflection on the national vision for ICT. That is why after having established the National Center for information processing in the 1970s, a department was created in 1997 with the creation of DELGI responsible to initiate e-governance in Burkina Faso.

I participated in 1998-1999 in the general debate on ICTs and national development. Broad participation was requested and anyone could send their ideas in written format to DELGI on what he thinks as appropriate in the context of national e. This consultation has been extended in all regions and at all levels (private, public, NGO ...)

As the process was long, UNDP has supported the meantime Burkina approach with smaller where I also participated in the study on the establishment of community telecentres in Burkina Faso. There was also a governance component, multimedia, and other educations.

UNDP process was blocked by lack of resources to conduct the approach that relied on external funds.

In 2004, after intensive consultations and a national conference that brings together technical and financial partners, the government and NGO's and the private sector, the government adopted a national strategy for ICT based on 6 axes. This strategy was juxtaposed with the strategic framework to fight against poverty. In fact, ICT should come and help the national strategy to fight against poverty.

Although aging adopted, no action left this document.

In 2009, we were again called to consider a possible readjustment of the e-strategy. I was responsible for leading the debate on e-services to the rural world. After extensive consultations and implications of more than 10 ministery departments, technical and financial partners, NGOs and other stakeholders, this plan was adopted in 2010.

We are in 2013 and nothing has been done.

I must say that we had a change of ministry. New technologies were under the direction of DELGI which itself has disappeared with the creation of the Ministry of ICT and post in 2004. this department was merged with the Ministry of Transport to form the Department of the digital economy and the Post in 2010. The ministry has changed again and became the Department of Development of the digital economy at the end of 2012.

Changes between these departments and practice every day, we must say that the government has been very ambitious with the different programs and the urgent need has led to the implementation of concrete actions and smaller projects .

Therefore whenever aditive studies already carried to adjust to the needs of the moment. Non fundraising may also explain the perpetual recommencement of the e-strategy.

NGOs and other private or public structures or telcoms continue , at their own levels to take action on the ground and certain actions affect the rural domain. For example, the implementation system of money transfers via mobile comes resolve monetary exchanges in rural areas. Projects such as those undertaken by the consortium C4C arrive at local levels to conduct substantive action on the ground, waiting for marge action by the government.

An e-strategy oriented rural and agriculture should go fast with its implementation after having the consent of the whole population, if not, the technology changing at a faster rate than strategies. The state did not want to go into adventures therefore, they only repeat studies to make adjustments.

The implementation of an e-agricultural strategy should take into account the national strategy for food security. This sector is about national sovereignty and to do this should be largely financed by the national budget. This is the only way that everything can get very quickly after adopting plans.

 

I had the honor to participate at different levels to reflect on the e-strategy in Burkina Faso as a consultant and as a member of social society with Yam Pukri

Burkina Faso has started early this reflection on the national vision for ICT. That is why after having established the National Center for information processing in the 1970s, a department was created in 1997 with the creation of DELGI responsible to initiate e-governance in Burkina Faso.

I participated in 1998-1999 in the general debate on ICTs and national development. Broad participation was requested and anyone could send their ideas in written format to DELGI on what he thinks as appropriate in the context of national e. This consultation has been extended in all regions and at all levels (private, public, NGO ...)

As the process was long, UNDP has supported the meantime Burkina approach with smaller where I also participated in the study on the establishment of community telecentres in Burkina Faso. There was also a governance component, multimedia, and other educations.

UNDP process was blocked by lack of resources to conduct the approach that relied on external funds.

In 2004, after intensive consultations and a national conference that brings together technical and financial partners, the government and NGO's and the private sector, the government adopted a national strategy for ICT based on 6 axes. This strategy was juxtaposed with the strategic framework to fight against poverty. In fact, ICT should come and help the national strategy to fight against poverty.

Although aging adopted, no action left this document.

In 2009, we were again called to consider a possible readjustment of the e-strategy. I was responsible for leading the debate on e-services to the rural world. After extensive consultations and implications of more than 10 ministery departments, technical and financial partners, NGOs and other stakeholders, this plan was adopted in 2010.

We are in 2013 and nothing has been done.

I must say that we had a change of ministry. New technologies were under the direction of DELGI which itself has disappeared with the creation of the Ministry of ICT and post in 2004. this department was merged with the Ministry of Transport to form the Department of the digital economy and the Post in 2010. The ministry has changed again and became the Department of Development of the digital economy at the end of 2012.

Changes between these departments and practice every day, we must say that the government has been very ambitious with the different programs and the urgent need has led to the implementation of concrete actions and smaller projects .

Therefore whenever aditive studies already carried to adjust to the needs of the moment. Non fundraising may also explain the perpetual recommencement of the e-strategy.

NGOs and other private or public structures or telcoms continue , at their own levels to take action on the ground and certain actions affect the rural domain. For example, the implementation system of money transfers via mobile comes resolve monetary exchanges in rural areas. Projects such as those undertaken by the consortium C4C arrive at local levels to conduct substantive action on the ground, waiting for marge action by the government.

An e-strategy oriented rural and agriculture should go fast with its implementation after having the consent of the whole population, if not, the technology changing at a faster rate than strategies. The state did not want to go into adventures therefore, they only repeat studies to make adjustments.

The implementation of an e-agricultural strategy should take into account the national strategy for food security. This sector is about national sovereignty and to do this should be largely financed by the national budget. This is the only way that everything can get very quickly after adopting plans.

 

I had the honor to participate at different levels to reflect on the e-strategy in Burkina Faso as a consultant and as a member of social society with Yam Pukri

Burkina Faso has started early this reflection on the national vision for ICT. That is why after having established the National Center for information processing in the 1970s, a department was created in 1997 with the creation of DELGI responsible to initiate e-governance in Burkina Faso.

I participated in 1998-1999 in the general debate on ICTs and national development. Broad participation was requested and anyone could send their ideas in written format to DELGI on what he thinks as appropriate in the context of national e. This consultation has been extended in all regions and at all levels (private, public, NGO ...)

As the process was long, UNDP has supported the meantime Burkina approach with smaller where I also participated in the study on the establishment of community telecentres in Burkina Faso. There was also a governance component, multimedia, and other educations.

UNDP process was blocked by lack of resources to conduct the approach that relied on external funds.

In 2004, after intensive consultations and a national conference that brings together technical and financial partners, the government and NGO's and the private sector, the government adopted a national strategy for ICT based on 6 axes. This strategy was juxtaposed with the strategic framework to fight against poverty. In fact, ICT should come and help the national strategy to fight against poverty.

Although aging adopted, no action left this document.

In 2009, we were again called to consider a possible readjustment of the e-strategy. I was responsible for leading the debate on e-services to the rural world. After extensive consultations and implications of more than 10 ministery departments, technical and financial partners, NGOs and other stakeholders, this plan was adopted in 2010.

We are in 2013 and nothing has been done.

I must say that we had a change of ministry. New technologies were under the direction of DELGI which itself has disappeared with the creation of the Ministry of ICT and post in 2004. this department was merged with the Ministry of Transport to form the Department of the digital economy and the Post in 2010. The ministry has changed again and became the Department of Development of the digital economy at the end of 2012.

Changes between these departments and practice every day, we must say that the government has been very ambitious with the different programs and the urgent need has led to the implementation of concrete actions and smaller projects .

Therefore whenever aditive studies already carried to adjust to the needs of the moment. Non fundraising may also explain the perpetual recommencement of the e-strategy.

NGOs and other private or public structures or telcoms continue , at their own levels to take action on the ground and certain actions affect the rural domain. For example, the implementation system of money transfers via mobile comes resolve monetary exchanges in rural areas. Projects such as those undertaken by the consortium C4C arrive at local levels to conduct substantive action on the ground, waiting for marge action by the government.

An e-strategy oriented rural and agriculture should go fast with its implementation after having the consent of the whole population, if not, the technology changing at a faster rate than strategies. The state did not want to go into adventures therefore, they only repeat studies to make adjustments.

The implementation of an e-agricultural strategy should take into account the national strategy for food security. This sector is about national sovereignty and to do this should be largely financed by the national budget. This is the only way that everything can get very quickly after adopting plans.

 

All

Apologies for such a later post.

I have read the majority of the responses which are in favor of a national e agriculture plan in agri. However some repsondents pointed out some challenges in implementing such a plan.

Issues faced in the Caribbean region include
-difficulty in adopting new technologies
-severe learning curves
-disinterest by some stakeholders
-severe implementation issues.

There is the CARICOM which has a regional initiative for ICT in agriculture but not only is the intiative far from being properly implemented but nothing is done to solve the aforementionaed problems. Older and Rural farmers do not always see the benefit in ICTs. This certainly does not mean that they are not able but the problem is they are not willing at least not all of them.

Therefore in my opinion any national e-agri strategy should aim to solves these problems as well.

Regards 
keron

 
Dear All,
Thanks for the lively discussions going since last week which I found very enriching. Having being on mission in Rwanda last week, I was trying to catch up and wanted to share few thoughts and experiences from UNECA initiatives in this area particularly on issues that have been discussed over last week.

Yes, there is a need for national e-agriculture strategies, as it was highlighted by different colleagues here for some simple reasons ranging from competing for the limited financial resources for the sector to coordinating the multi-stakeholder initiatives in the sector into the overall national vision for the ICT sector in general and sectoral strategies in particular. In this regard, for example over 45 countries in Africa have now national ICT policies in place.  These national policies identify key pillars or priority areas ranging from infrastructure development to human resource devt, content dev’t, e-government, ICT for community development, agriculture, education, health, etc.  For example, agriculture is one of the key pillars of the national ICT policy in Burundi, Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire. Most countries have moved from policy formulation to implementation in the last over ten years which necessitated defining sectoral priorities through sectoral strategies, namely, e-agriculture, e-health, e-commerce, e-education, etc. strategies.  However, we have few countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali which have developed e-agriculture strategies. As most colleagues mentioned, there are a number of initiatives in the agri sector in several countries aiming, for example, to enhance the agri value chain through for example mobile app for providing market prices of agri products to farmers, and providing community telecentre access to rural communities, etc. However, there are several challenges of sustaining such initiatives as they are not connected to national dev’t plans or government sector development programmes through e-strategies in the sector. We are glad that the needs for e-agri strategies have been largely positively addressed in the discussions last week.

As it is clear, a lot of investment is going on in developing the infrastructure, deploying broadband and upgrading networks to 3G and 4G, etc. which agri stakeholders ranging from smallholder farmers to govt ministries and research institutions, famers organizations, universities and research institutions in the agri sector, etc. need to exploit the benefits of using ICTs in their respective domain in the wider agriculture sector.

At UNECA, as facilitators and coordinators of the implementation of WSIS action lines in Africa, we undertake questionnaire-administered surveys every two years to assess the status in each country. According to the results in the last three surveys, there is increasing use of ICT in some sectors such as e-government, e-education, e-business, etc. which has received the priority from government and other stakeholders. However, with agri gaining importance in the last few years at international levels there is increasing investment in the use of ICTs which need to be coupled with proper strategy in place. We look forward to providing our inputs on the rest of the issues this week.
 
Thanks
 
Abebe Chekol
UNECA/ISTD

Greetings to all.

At this point in time, I would encourage everyone to move forward and address this week questions (# 4, 5 and 6). This is a limited-time exercise, in terms of addressing specifically the set of 6 questions. I am sure the discussion will go on, notably with the upcoming Observatory and the WSIS process. However for the purposes of reporting on the discussion of those six questions, only the answers posted by Friday night, your time, are most likely to shape the report. Therefore I would appreciate you spend some time to reply to Questions 4, 5 and 6 by then.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Mawaki