Among the first steps to be taken is a social mapping program that identifies and characterizes the social system as alluded to earlier. This will provide a clear picture and facts about gender dynamics within the project area. This is very important to avoid making assumptions about gender issues. Another important step may also be participatory design of such projects with the communities that will be involved. I believe that the design of the projects should be in such a way that it is malleable according to specifics on the ground. This will also, to a large extent, contribute to the success of the ICT4D projects.

The role of ICT sector in the future (both near and far) will be very huge especially in value chain development. Although, the impact will certainly vary according to regions, countries and even individuals the general impact will be very positive. Since there is a lot of innovation in the ICT sector, the flag bearer might look like the mobile phone but maybe better and cheaper technologies will surely surface and have an impact. However, let me hasten to mention that in rural development, i believe that in some countries, the costs are prohibitive. These include costs of acquiring devices as well as subscription, maintenance or service charge. This cost element might in certain cases prevent many potential beneficiaries of ICT technologies. For example, in some rural areas, entrepreneurs charge users of mobile phones 3 to 5 times the charge by the operator. This might exacerbate poverty especially in cases where it is inevitable to communicate such as in emergency or to contact markets. The cost of production will increase and subsequently erode already lower profits in many agricultural and rural setups. The pricing issue for ICT falls mainly in the hands of private sector players who aim at profits and not necessarily on development. In this regard, while the role of the private sector is fundamental, they may contribute to limiting growth of ICt for agriculture and rural development because of their pricing regimes. I don't know how a fair cost recovery or costing system for ICT services and equipment can be established.

Hello everybody. My name is Abel Chemura and i am working for the Coffee Research Institute in Zimbabwe. My interests are in developing ICT-based information kiosks for smallholder farmers. These will be resources centres for production and marketing but must also be accessible without the farmer traveling long distance and also must be affordable. I look forward to an exciting discussion!

Dear all, Development of value chains will be useful for CERTAIN situations and agrosectors and maybe countries. I think a deepere analysiss has to be done.

Hie everyone, My name is Abel Chemura. I work as a researcher at the Coffee Research Institute in Eastern Zimbabwe. My experience are working with smallholder farmers to adapt coffee production to their circumstances and economies so that they can improve in socioeconomic aspects. In line with that, i am also fascinated by the possibilities that e-agriculture (particularly mobile telephony) offers to these farmers. Hope the interaction in this forum will be very useful to everyone and especially to agriculture.