Question 7 (17 Dec.)

[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] Question 7 (17 Dec.) How do you foresee ICT impacting the agricultural value chain in the future? What roles do the public and private sectors have in its success? [/quote] Dear Lisa, Thanks for posting the nice question.Future offers some optimism for certain issues while it also predicts pessimism for certain other issues.Though you have not delimited the time frame of the future, I feel the ICT will impact the agricutural value chain positively in the future. The extent of impact must be different for continents,regions or countries based on the current attainment and existing environment. ICT is a dynamic sector.There is a race among the IT industries for innovation.They may target R&D for the development of agricultural value chains and thus this sector will be benefited.Besides governments will strengthen public private partnership for improving the market dynamics and thus agricultural value chains may be developed where the share of ICT will be substantial. However,ICT is an aid for the market activities.Many other factors and components will influence the value chain in the future as it is affected now-a-days. Best regards, Zainul

[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] How do you foresee ICT impacting the agricultural value chain in the future? What roles do the public and private sectors have in its success? [/quote] ICT will definitely highly impact the agricultural value chain in developing countries in the next ten years (as it already does impact the avc's in the rest of the world). The private sector will probably become the main driver of innovation, more than govt and development agencies. But for the poor farmers to benefit from this process, special attention needs to be given to them with awareness raising, training and empowerment on ICT.

How do you foresee ICT impacting the agricultural value chain in the future? What roles do the public and private sectors have in its success? 1. India the experience has been very good- ICTbased intervention modles seems to be better of: in the Agri information dissemination modle, where in the farmers receive short message ontheir mobile. 2.Stand alone service centers , which are called Common Service Centers (CSC) its a huge initiative, which is being led only by the pvt sector- a definative reveune model is yet to be establisehed , hence its gng slow. 3.One of the key thing is the ability of the farmers to even pay half a dollar for any service- as cost remains a huge deterant- and no pvt sector would like to do anything for charity. 4.Govt run Farmer call centers are an absolute failure in India. 5. the much talked about E-choupal initiative of ITC also remains a good example on paper- on ground the situation is completely different for these koisks. 6.ICT is the way to reach the remote farmers- but challenge is finding a correct way to reach- no definative modle has been established so far. Private sector will be large player but only if they find a revenue potential.Which has been established to a certain extent in using the mobile technology, others yet to find ground :roll:

Dear Lisa I strongly stand by Flauerys points. Thank you. Sea

Dear all, ICT offers great potential for agri value chain when it comes to developing countries I see it playing a great role in future by ensuring information delivery to the resource poor farmers and bringing transparency in the system. also, it can revolutionize the chains by reducing post harvest losses and empowering the farmers. More transparency will help build efficiency in the system and consumers will be benefitted. In fact, all stakeholders will be benefitted by ICT. But, I very much agree with ravi Shankar's point that we have to properly implement these solutions in terms of resouces, processes and people. The ground level implementation is the most critical success factor. The sources for evenue generation are more important.So the policy makers have to be very cautious only then it can be successfully implemented and serve for farmers as well as developing economies. Sapna

Dear all, Accountability should be the watch word in implementing important processes. The inventorization of the chain will enhance transparency as individuals, organizations and government can closely mark each other through time bound reporting of activities in their domain. I understand the political interest of some government in developing countries, but then improvement in audio transactions,video clips and pictures will be great materials for submitting progress report of various activities. The farmer with more incentives will be ready to pay for improvement. The private sector has to see how they can also contribute for social growth while they still make profits. Governments in the developing Countries, especially in Africa have more problems because of no focus vision for the Continent. We hope sooner or later, there will be a shift from their money making ventures through there political positions and the masses may enjoy good governance. Sea

[quote="ravishankar"] 6.ICT is the way to reach the remote farmers - to a certain extent in using the mobile technology, others yet to find ground [/quote] A recent research conducted by LIRNEasia on Teleuse at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) users, in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, and Thailand showed that; More house holds had access to a telephone (mobile of fixed) than a radio. [except Sri Lanka and Philippines]. This shows mobile phones or other fixed phones such as CDMA phones becoming a very good medium to reach the remote farmers. -Sameera.

[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] Question 7 (17 Dec.) How do you foresee ICT impacting the agricultural value chain in the future? What roles do the public and private sectors have in its success? [/quote] I agree with several of the participants who have highlighted the strong impact that ICT will have in the development of agricultural value chains. I also think that the main driver of innovation will be the private sector. However, I would like to stress the complementarity between these players. Business, government and nonpprofit institutions have different roles and capabilities in pushing the development of the ICT sector. The role of the public sector is crucial to create the necessary enabling environment to facilitate the use of ICTs in value chains. This is particularly important in rural areas: (i) developing the national information and communications infrastructure; (ii) supporting innovative pilot projects from the private sector; and (iii) creating the necessary standards and guidelines. NGOs may play a key role promoting capacity building activities in alliance with the private sector and reaching rural and isolated communities. Two main challenges that we currently face are the insufficient interactions between private enterprises, non-governmental organizations and the public sector. These interactions have been increasing in the past few years but they are still not enough. NGOs can make a positive role facilitating the link between private and public initiatives. The second related challenge is the need to develop institutional mechanisms (including ICT platforms) to facilitate a continuous process of sharing and learning from best practices. South- South cooperation may play an important role in addressing these challenges.

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.

[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] Question 7 (17 Dec.) How do you foresee ICT impacting the agricultural value chain in the future? What roles do the public and private sectors have in its success? [/quote] I would like ICT to impact the agricultural value chain more than what it is being used for as of now. In India there have been a number of experiments on use of ICT, none in my knowledge which is sustainable, scalable and successful. Lot of value is lost in the value chain and the farmer does not get his dues, appropriate use of ICT should help farmers in getting right price for their produce. There is 400% markup / margin on what is paid to the farmer for his produce. If better ICT alongwith supporting supply chains are put in place, the farmers would get his rightful dues. There is a mixed role for Public & Private sector. The groundwork has to be done by public sector / government to enable the private sector to come up and accept the challenge. What I have seen, the development of applications on a trial basis is easy, but service delivery and that too on a viable revenue model is the challenge. India has about 0.6 million villages, and to reach these many locations in a financial feasible way is not possible for either private or public sector alone. ICT and specifically mobile technology has a great potential to address these challenges and I would like to see some good mobile applications and service delivery models addressing these issues.

Hi All "Poor farmers are not a problem; they are the solution" - Bill Gates There will be numerous challenges and those would be more challenging as well. We have to "Do more with less resource". So we definitely need a catalyst such as ICT. We need governments to make right policies to help the development of agriculture sector and make room for sustainable private sector involvements. If the private sector gets involved, they will bring the expertise and efficiency to the whole system to make the agricultural value-chain efficient and sustainable. Anyway governments will play a watch dog's role to ensure win-win solutions for the private sector as well as for poor farmers. -Sameera.