e-Agriculture: looking back and moving forward
Question 3 (opens 2 Dec.) What is necessary to ensure ensuring that rural youth, women, the poorest...
18/11/2013
Question 3 (opens 2 Dec.) What is necessary to ensure that rural youth, women, the poorest, persons with disabilities and indigenous peoples benefit from the opportunities provided by ICT?
Submitted by Michael Riggs on Mon, 12/02/2013 - 15:43
Copied from post of dwakhata under Question 2.
2. Insecurity of some men when their wives’ voices are frequently aired on the radio (either as star or radio farmers) and when given phones to use.
3. Lack of capacity by the actors to identify and integrate gender in all stages of work.
4. African women seem to fear their husbands rather than respecting them so it was not easy conduct interviews to get their perspectives,or train them on the use of technology in presences of their husbands.
5. Sometimes, male representatives and or service providers on the radio or other technology in dessemination of information get excited (sometimes use ‘inappropriate’ words) when females call in and this seems to annoy and discourage their husbands from allowing their wives to call in.
The following is based on my experience in the field(Mbale District-Uganda)
Challenges of integrating gender
1. Cultural prejudice that continue to be used by men to control women.2. Insecurity of some men when their wives’ voices are frequently aired on the radio (either as star or radio farmers) and when given phones to use.
3. Lack of capacity by the actors to identify and integrate gender in all stages of work.
4. African women seem to fear their husbands rather than respecting them so it was not easy conduct interviews to get their perspectives,or train them on the use of technology in presences of their husbands.
5. Sometimes, male representatives and or service providers on the radio or other technology in dessemination of information get excited (sometimes use ‘inappropriate’ words) when females call in and this seems to annoy and discourage their husbands from allowing their wives to call in.
Recommendations for better integration of gender
- Tease out gender issues at planning stages
- Identify strategies to address gender issues e.g. the gender proposals for under beans
- Affirmative action in favor of women for example in selecting beneficiaries, interviewees, enterprises and technologies
- Provide instant incentives tagged to women’s participation. For example the presenter can promise to give a few kilograms of seed/T-shirt/cap for every woman who will call during the radio program. This incentive mechanism can be facilitated by partnering with seed/input companies/schools/banks/microfinance other institutions.
- Listener clubs for different categories of people (Youth, men, women, PWDs and mixed ones)
- Sensitize radio producers and presenters on gender
- Capturing testimonies from women and airing them. Better if these testimonies from women who have succeeded in collaborating with her husband e.g. her husband allows her more access to funds
Submitted by Michael Riggs on Mon, 12/02/2013 - 15:45
Copied from post of mmmayzelle under Question 2.
dwakhata, Thanks for highlighting some of the many challenges women face as they attempt to benefit and participate in the services made available to them through ICT.
The vocabulary you employ (cultural prejudice, insecurity, fear, excited, inappropriate...) suggest that the discrimination women face is not isolated to ICT initiatives, but rather is very much ingrained in the surrounding culture. Of course, that is not to say that our projects cannot help chip away at such cultural divides.
Interventions such as incentives for female participants and gender-based listener's clubs may make things easier for women in the short term, but in the long run they are still separating genders and suggesting that women are somehow different or merit different attention than men (this applies in some situations--such as health issues--but not, I believe, in professional arenas such as agriculture).
The best solutions are those that promote equal treatment of both genders. Examples include the consideration of gender issues in the planning stages and, most importantly, sensitization of people in power (in your example, the radio producers and presenter) that you rightly mention. Another avenue is the engagement of "crusader" women in the spotlight of the project (in your example, as producers or presenters) who are willing to perhaps face some discrimination and hardship in the name of demonstrating that their gender is no different when it comes to business/agriculture/etc. As we all know, putting a face and a personality on a "faceless" issue (such as gender discrimiantion) is the most effective way to change individuals' perceptions.
Thanks for bringing up this hugely important point.
Submitted by Michael Riggs on Mon, 12/02/2013 - 15:46
Copied from post of rachel sibande under Question 2.
Dear all,
Dwakatha, I want to share the Malawian experience in this space of Gender and ICTs in the agricultaral arena and the lessons that we have learned.
1. When we started off deployment of Esoko, a web to sms platform through which smallholders were receiveing market prices and extension messages; we had not thouroyghly conducted an assessment on gender and its dynamics as relates to the targeted audience i.e. rural smallholders. As we closed the initial phase it was clear this was an oversight and had to be done. Hence I recommend that such assessments on access to eqipment such as cellphones,radios and other gadgets to be used for information service delivery , mapping of gender roles e.t.c should be done prior to deployment to design initiatives that will start addressing these gaps.
2. When we did the assessment through focus group discussions, one on one interviews, database checks and observations; it was clear that:
- Over 65% of the agricultural workforce doing the work in the fields for food crops from land preparation through postharvest handling were women. Men were more involved in marketing.
- Most women did not have access to cellphones yet information was sent through phone. 86% of male smallholders were registered to receive market and extension information via SMS on their cellphones while women smallholders only made 14% of those registered. The gender disparity is pretty wide in terms of access to te cellphones. From focus group discussions, it was interesting to note that men did not share some of the infromation on extension with their female counterparts regardless of the fact that it was the womn that did most of the farm work hence needed the information more. Men were not willig to let their wives have ceelphones for reasons ranging from that of women being vulnerable to communicate with other man friends to others saying they just didnt think it was necessary for a woman to have a phone anyway.
We resolved to do the following inorder to start addressing these gaps:_
1. Encourage families i.e. husband and wife to attend trainings as an item, not as individual farmers.
2. During trainings emphasise the importance of sharing information
3. Bring in smallholder family role models to share their success stories with fellow farmers. Smllholders that share information and can link this to increased production and quality or even the ability to bargain for better prices and to make informed decisions with income.
Just thought I woupd share some of the experiences we have had and how we are dealing with issues and to gauge how others have dealt with similar instances elsewhere.
Submitted by Lee Babcock on Mon, 12/02/2013 - 18:33
Thanks Michael for this repost of Rachel Sibande's post under Question 2. It is interesting to note her mention of involving families in training which has much resonance with how the development community is increasinly embracing the smallholder farming family as the more relevant unit of measurement as opposed to just the farmer. This is because if we program for and measure the smallholder farming family this will more explicity engage gender and youth. If then, our new unit is the family then the "information democracy" characteristic of ICTs will further mainstream women and youth into agricultural value chain activity....as well as other household activities germane to health, education, off-farm labor, remittances, etc.
Submitted by Megan Mayzelle on Mon, 12/02/2013 - 19:36
Rachel,
Thank you for this wonderful post outlining the steps Esoko took to engage women and help break down paradigms of excluding women from information exchange! As Lee suggestions, the idea of encouraging families to attend trainings together is particularly interesting. Could you share a bit more about your approach to this? I.e.:
1--What specific steps were taken to encourage families to attend together? I can imagine in some communities I've visited it would be challenging to overcome the tendency to separate genders in public, as well as overcome the preference to leave someone at home at all times to protect the family's valuables (esp where homes are more rudimentary without secure locks).
2--Did you attempt to incorporate youth/children as well?
3--Would youth in the home facilitating information exchange for women (esp. in the case of illiteracy) be a easier first step for husbands with hesitations re: wives using cell phones?
4--Did you find that these interventions were effective? Was there a change in ownership of cell phones by women?
Thank you for this wonderful post outlining the steps Esoko took to engage women and help break down paradigms of excluding women from information exchange! As Lee suggestions, the idea of encouraging families to attend trainings together is particularly interesting. Could you share a bit more about your approach to this? I.e.:
1--What specific steps were taken to encourage families to attend together? I can imagine in some communities I've visited it would be challenging to overcome the tendency to separate genders in public, as well as overcome the preference to leave someone at home at all times to protect the family's valuables (esp where homes are more rudimentary without secure locks).
2--Did you attempt to incorporate youth/children as well?
3--Would youth in the home facilitating information exchange for women (esp. in the case of illiteracy) be a easier first step for husbands with hesitations re: wives using cell phones?
4--Did you find that these interventions were effective? Was there a change in ownership of cell phones by women?
Submitted by betty mutua on Wed, 12/04/2013 - 05:03
Megan and Michael,
I wrote about the importance of involving men in women's groups.Most of these groups are women specific,ignoring the relation of men.
Since the introduction of 'family farmers' in my community there has been tremedous change in closing the gender gaps in agriculture.Its not been easy convincing the men ,proper communication channels had to be used.We first approched the chief and the community elders explained to them the importance of women's groups,issues women farmers are going through(especially land ownership and domestic violence in the homes),the importance of bringing together men farmers(land owners) and women farmers(mostly the labourers).Thereafter we met with the extension officers who arranged for us a meeting with the land owners.The first meeting was intense ,the women were afraid to voice their concern for fear of domestic violence back at home.We resorted to do house visits together with extension officers and these lead to a second meeting which was successful.
Family farming has lead to increase in production and sharing of knowledge especially new technologies in farming that were owned and controlled by men farmers.The men farmers are also turning to new crop production instead of the normal maize and beans that they demanded their women to plant in their lands,they have welcomed the production of fruit farming like melons which do well in ukambani.
Intergrating new ict tools such as mobile-phone sms has been a challenge due to the illetracy levels in the community.the women prefer listening to radio because it is transmitted in their own vernacular languge(kamba language).Their husbands are not always at home to teach them how to use cell phones to gain information about the market prices.
We have started ' youths in farming' initiative to facilitate the use of ict in the homesteads.we still in the mobilization stage will let you know how these turns out.
My one question about ict will it embrace the indigenous knowledge of women in food security for example in my community
A)during drought the women bury pumpkin in the ground as a means of food preservation method.
B)After harvesting maize the women select specific seeds to be used in the next planting season.
Will ict bring along technology that my community cannot afford?
2.Lee Babcock has mentioned BOP impact assessment has anyone used it in kenya or around east africa?
BETTY MUTUA
I wrote about the importance of involving men in women's groups.Most of these groups are women specific,ignoring the relation of men.
Since the introduction of 'family farmers' in my community there has been tremedous change in closing the gender gaps in agriculture.Its not been easy convincing the men ,proper communication channels had to be used.We first approched the chief and the community elders explained to them the importance of women's groups,issues women farmers are going through(especially land ownership and domestic violence in the homes),the importance of bringing together men farmers(land owners) and women farmers(mostly the labourers).Thereafter we met with the extension officers who arranged for us a meeting with the land owners.The first meeting was intense ,the women were afraid to voice their concern for fear of domestic violence back at home.We resorted to do house visits together with extension officers and these lead to a second meeting which was successful.
Family farming has lead to increase in production and sharing of knowledge especially new technologies in farming that were owned and controlled by men farmers.The men farmers are also turning to new crop production instead of the normal maize and beans that they demanded their women to plant in their lands,they have welcomed the production of fruit farming like melons which do well in ukambani.
Intergrating new ict tools such as mobile-phone sms has been a challenge due to the illetracy levels in the community.the women prefer listening to radio because it is transmitted in their own vernacular languge(kamba language).Their husbands are not always at home to teach them how to use cell phones to gain information about the market prices.
We have started ' youths in farming' initiative to facilitate the use of ict in the homesteads.we still in the mobilization stage will let you know how these turns out.
My one question about ict will it embrace the indigenous knowledge of women in food security for example in my community
A)during drought the women bury pumpkin in the ground as a means of food preservation method.
B)After harvesting maize the women select specific seeds to be used in the next planting season.
Will ict bring along technology that my community cannot afford?
2.Lee Babcock has mentioned BOP impact assessment has anyone used it in kenya or around east africa?
BETTY MUTUA
Submitted by Kiringai Kamau on Wed, 12/04/2013 - 09:52
Will ICT embrace the indigenous knowledge of women in food security for example in my community?
I have stated in another post the work that Digital Green is doing in bringing people together to listen not from radio but from their peers. We have developed a model which is backed by a value chain cooperative at national level that we call RAVAAKs. It would be nice to include your groups that work along appropriate value chains to create a value chain cooperative that can benefit from our Value Chain Agribusiness Investment Cooperative.
Will ICT bring along technology that my community cannot afford?
When communities come together as a value chain rather than households, we have demonstrated in dairy and horticulture that they can afford investment in any identified technology. The model of RAVAAKs, which I have made reference to in the post on gender, can be supported through the government Huduma Centers in Kenya. It can become a vehicle for investment by other development institutions. We are keen to explain this one in your vernacular to your people.
Lee Babcock has mentioned BOP impact assessment has anyone used it in Kenya or around east Africa?
BoP Impact Assessment is just impact assessment in pro-poor programmes that target grassroots programmes. All development programmes by leading development programmes of USAID, DANIDA, IFAD, World Bank, SIDA, JICA, Technoserve, SNV, World Vision etc have impact assessments at the BoP.
Kiringai
I have stated in another post the work that Digital Green is doing in bringing people together to listen not from radio but from their peers. We have developed a model which is backed by a value chain cooperative at national level that we call RAVAAKs. It would be nice to include your groups that work along appropriate value chains to create a value chain cooperative that can benefit from our Value Chain Agribusiness Investment Cooperative.
Will ICT bring along technology that my community cannot afford?
When communities come together as a value chain rather than households, we have demonstrated in dairy and horticulture that they can afford investment in any identified technology. The model of RAVAAKs, which I have made reference to in the post on gender, can be supported through the government Huduma Centers in Kenya. It can become a vehicle for investment by other development institutions. We are keen to explain this one in your vernacular to your people.
Lee Babcock has mentioned BOP impact assessment has anyone used it in Kenya or around east Africa?
BoP Impact Assessment is just impact assessment in pro-poor programmes that target grassroots programmes. All development programmes by leading development programmes of USAID, DANIDA, IFAD, World Bank, SIDA, JICA, Technoserve, SNV, World Vision etc have impact assessments at the BoP.
Kiringai
Submitted by Megan Mayzelle on Wed, 12/04/2013 - 17:24
Betty, Thanks for this excellent example of how family farming was promoted in your community!
Could you tell us more about any involvement of youth or children in the women's group's meetings in your community? Was it attempted? How did the women react? The men?
To respond to your question, I believe if content development grows out of communication between end users experts (as Steph described in previous discussions) and if these experts or other involved intermediaries (such as radio hosts) are appropriately sensitized to appreciate the knowledge and experience that the end users bring to the table, then indigenious wisdom and tradition will absolutely be captured and transmitted the other users via the ICT initiative.
Could you tell us more about any involvement of youth or children in the women's group's meetings in your community? Was it attempted? How did the women react? The men?
To respond to your question, I believe if content development grows out of communication between end users experts (as Steph described in previous discussions) and if these experts or other involved intermediaries (such as radio hosts) are appropriately sensitized to appreciate the knowledge and experience that the end users bring to the table, then indigenious wisdom and tradition will absolutely be captured and transmitted the other users via the ICT initiative.
Submitted by Lee Babcock on Mon, 12/02/2013 - 18:44
Thanks Michael for this repost of dwakhata's post under Question 2. Perhaps another recommendation might be to measure the impact of ICTs on women. Something that immediately comes to mind is to use the BoP Impact Assessment Framework http://wdi.umich.edu/research/bop/impact-assessment-page . It is a more holistic impact assessment tool that considers changed behaviors and changed relationships....as well as changed economics. An underlying premise is impact can be good....as well as bad ....for example, if a woman is financially empowered this might result is domestic abuse and/or cultural alienation. If so, this impact must be revealed so that future programming can mitigate against such negative impacts.
Submitted by Megan Mayzelle on Mon, 12/02/2013 - 21:41
LeeHBabock, thanks for pointing out this often overlooked aspect of gender empowerment--negative impact. A few additional points of eloboration on that topic:
*Normal is Easier Our own culture often leads us to assume that disempowered women see themselves as such, are looking for an opportunity to change, and would make significant sacrifices to change their situation. In reality, however, gender discrimination is often a cultural tradition that is embraced as wholly by women as men in the culture. Therefore, when women are encouraged to break with the cultural norm, even when the benefits are obvious to them, they will at least feel uncomfortable and at worst will be treated badly by others in the community--perhaps particularly other women--as a result. We must be aware that women's lifelong culture may be telling them that what we are encouraging them to do is "wrong", "strange", "manly", or "out of line" and understand why some women may choose to stick with the norm and not to adopt the "empowered" behavior that we are encouraging.
*Empowerment can be an Obligation One approach to women's engagement is to offer benefits (supplies, microloans, gifts, etc) only to women. Yes, this does empower the women. However, it may also put her in a position of obligation--ex: husband pressures wife to take out a microloan because he wants the money. In this example, she is then left with the responsibility of repaying the loan without necessarily having the means to do so. We must keep in mind that empowering a woman in one particular aspect (ex: access to microloan) does not ensure that she is universally empowered (ex: ability to choose whether she takes out a loan, or ability to earn money to repay the loan).
*Overburden Women are the workhorses in many developing cultures, and are already facing a very full day of exhausting work--farm, home, children. What project we are asking them to participate in either lengthens their day or compromises their work, the latter of which can result in domestic conflict. We must be sensitive to the other demands on their time.
*Youth as a Connection to Women Unlike many housewives, children and youth have relative freedom of movement about the community and relatively more free time. Children and youth are often employed as messengers between housewives tied to their homes, and are frequently the most literate in the household. If this is the case in the host culture, the possibility to engage youth in the project should be kept in mind as an option for indirectly engaging women who are not yet able to participate themselves--either in community meetings or via devices such as cell phones--and keep them in the loop.
*Normal is Easier Our own culture often leads us to assume that disempowered women see themselves as such, are looking for an opportunity to change, and would make significant sacrifices to change their situation. In reality, however, gender discrimination is often a cultural tradition that is embraced as wholly by women as men in the culture. Therefore, when women are encouraged to break with the cultural norm, even when the benefits are obvious to them, they will at least feel uncomfortable and at worst will be treated badly by others in the community--perhaps particularly other women--as a result. We must be aware that women's lifelong culture may be telling them that what we are encouraging them to do is "wrong", "strange", "manly", or "out of line" and understand why some women may choose to stick with the norm and not to adopt the "empowered" behavior that we are encouraging.
*Empowerment can be an Obligation One approach to women's engagement is to offer benefits (supplies, microloans, gifts, etc) only to women. Yes, this does empower the women. However, it may also put her in a position of obligation--ex: husband pressures wife to take out a microloan because he wants the money. In this example, she is then left with the responsibility of repaying the loan without necessarily having the means to do so. We must keep in mind that empowering a woman in one particular aspect (ex: access to microloan) does not ensure that she is universally empowered (ex: ability to choose whether she takes out a loan, or ability to earn money to repay the loan).
*Overburden Women are the workhorses in many developing cultures, and are already facing a very full day of exhausting work--farm, home, children. What project we are asking them to participate in either lengthens their day or compromises their work, the latter of which can result in domestic conflict. We must be sensitive to the other demands on their time.
*Youth as a Connection to Women Unlike many housewives, children and youth have relative freedom of movement about the community and relatively more free time. Children and youth are often employed as messengers between housewives tied to their homes, and are frequently the most literate in the household. If this is the case in the host culture, the possibility to engage youth in the project should be kept in mind as an option for indirectly engaging women who are not yet able to participate themselves--either in community meetings or via devices such as cell phones--and keep them in the loop.
Submitted by stephane boyera on Mon, 12/02/2013 - 16:50
Michael,
it is very good to copy relevant previous discussion!
your experience in Uganda is relatively similar to mine in Mali with few differences & specificities.
*Engagement
As it happens in many domains, people are more enclin to engage with a particular service (mobile service or radio program) if they can associate themselves with wha tis presented. Integrating women voices or contribution to the program is a successfull way in that regards. Using e.g. a female voice in IVR is also a way to leverage this identification. As a side note, that was one of our finding when testing voices in IVR system: some topics are normally covered by men or women, and therefore a same gender must apply when providing information through IVR.
*Access to devices
In our experience, and this was largely underlined in a few posts, the access to mobile devices is harder for women or poorest fraction of the farmes. Mixing radio programs and mobile is a way to bridge this gap, instead of focusing on mobile only. Carefully selecting the time of the day where people have more likely access to a device is also a way to leverage call-in in radio programs
*technology
We found where we were owrking in Mali that the level of literacy was largely lower within women than men. The use of IVR technology vs SMS was a way to empower women, instead of using SMS intermediaries that in our case could only be men
steph
it is very good to copy relevant previous discussion!
your experience in Uganda is relatively similar to mine in Mali with few differences & specificities.
*Engagement
As it happens in many domains, people are more enclin to engage with a particular service (mobile service or radio program) if they can associate themselves with wha tis presented. Integrating women voices or contribution to the program is a successfull way in that regards. Using e.g. a female voice in IVR is also a way to leverage this identification. As a side note, that was one of our finding when testing voices in IVR system: some topics are normally covered by men or women, and therefore a same gender must apply when providing information through IVR.
*Access to devices
In our experience, and this was largely underlined in a few posts, the access to mobile devices is harder for women or poorest fraction of the farmes. Mixing radio programs and mobile is a way to bridge this gap, instead of focusing on mobile only. Carefully selecting the time of the day where people have more likely access to a device is also a way to leverage call-in in radio programs
*technology
We found where we were owrking in Mali that the level of literacy was largely lower within women than men. The use of IVR technology vs SMS was a way to empower women, instead of using SMS intermediaries that in our case could only be men
steph
Submitted by Hillary Miller-Wise on Tue, 12/03/2013 - 13:03
Thanks for the great discussion so far. I very much appreciate the insights of Stephen, Lee and others on the issue of designing ICT interventions that take into account the particular challenges that women in developing countries face. Ideas like using women's voices for IVR messages are very relevant and actionable.
I would like to suggest, though, that in the same way that not all poor people are the same, women also cannot be thought of as a single, uniform group when we are talking about designing ICT interventions. The mistake that many people make when it comes to product design, not just in our field, is to assume a far greater degree of homogeneity of preferences, behavior, etc. than actually exists. As we can intuit, not only can we not assume homogeneous preferences among all women, but we cannot really generalize about women in India alone, for example, or even rural women in India. The tendency to generalize often leads to poor design and ultimately product failure.
For this reason, Grameen Foundation has invested tremendously in developing a human-centered design (HCD) approach to product and service design. Rather than using deductive or inductive reasoning, this approach relies heavily on observation and repeated iterations of hypotheses based on those observations. In this way, we don't fall into the trap of desiging for the lowest common denominator, which is usually a race to the bottom.
Observing women's behavior, and not just listening to what the women tell us, will ultimately guide us to more effective ICT solutions for them.
I would like to suggest, though, that in the same way that not all poor people are the same, women also cannot be thought of as a single, uniform group when we are talking about designing ICT interventions. The mistake that many people make when it comes to product design, not just in our field, is to assume a far greater degree of homogeneity of preferences, behavior, etc. than actually exists. As we can intuit, not only can we not assume homogeneous preferences among all women, but we cannot really generalize about women in India alone, for example, or even rural women in India. The tendency to generalize often leads to poor design and ultimately product failure.
For this reason, Grameen Foundation has invested tremendously in developing a human-centered design (HCD) approach to product and service design. Rather than using deductive or inductive reasoning, this approach relies heavily on observation and repeated iterations of hypotheses based on those observations. In this way, we don't fall into the trap of desiging for the lowest common denominator, which is usually a race to the bottom.
Observing women's behavior, and not just listening to what the women tell us, will ultimately guide us to more effective ICT solutions for them.
Submitted by Gerard Sylvester on Tue, 12/03/2013 - 01:31
Today, the 3rd December, is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=1607) with the theme “Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all”
Coming back to the forum question, we see that in most countries, especially in rural areas, patriarchal society is prevelant. While the point flagged by David, eariler and also in Q2, on the lack of capacity by the actors to identify and integrate gender in all stages of work is very true, we see that a lot of changes have been seen in the last few years with regard to gender and designing inclusive ICTs.
The year 2014 is designated as the International Year of Family Farming by the United Nations and during one of our recent regional dialogues on a question on 'How to make family farming more "attractive" so as to retrain/attact youth' it was mentioned that the introduction of emerging ICTs for agricultural development could be one of the key 'attractions' to brining in youth back to farming.
Hence designing appropriate ICTs ensuring equitable access to all is of paramount importance. This involves both policy interventions and product design.
Trying to bring in gender equality & equity has to be carefully handled and very strategically introduced into program as this may go against centuries old deep-seated cultural traditions, ideologies and societal systems.
Coming back to the forum question, we see that in most countries, especially in rural areas, patriarchal society is prevelant. While the point flagged by David, eariler and also in Q2, on the lack of capacity by the actors to identify and integrate gender in all stages of work is very true, we see that a lot of changes have been seen in the last few years with regard to gender and designing inclusive ICTs.
The year 2014 is designated as the International Year of Family Farming by the United Nations and during one of our recent regional dialogues on a question on 'How to make family farming more "attractive" so as to retrain/attact youth' it was mentioned that the introduction of emerging ICTs for agricultural development could be one of the key 'attractions' to brining in youth back to farming.
Hence designing appropriate ICTs ensuring equitable access to all is of paramount importance. This involves both policy interventions and product design.
Trying to bring in gender equality & equity has to be carefully handled and very strategically introduced into program as this may go against centuries old deep-seated cultural traditions, ideologies and societal systems.
Submitted by Dorine Odongo on Tue, 12/03/2013 - 13:44
Key to ensuring that tha the advantages and opportunitites offered by ICTs are exploited fully by all is awareness creation. there needs to be a succinct plan right from the beggining on how to maximize use of whichever ICT application or innovation by all, which should include spreading the word about the same.
Women, rural youth and all indeginous people will only benefit from ICTs if they know a)about ICTs and what opporuntities they provide and b) hwo to use them.
From my expeirnece in a recent study that I carried out looking at the uptake of ICT-based innovations for information access in Kenya, lack of information about these is a major hinderance in their adoption.
We need to focus not just on coming up with ICT based applications and how to use thme for imporved productivity, but equally on maximizing their use by promoting them and spreading their 'gospel'.
Women, rural youth and all indeginous people will only benefit from ICTs if they know a)about ICTs and what opporuntities they provide and b) hwo to use them.
From my expeirnece in a recent study that I carried out looking at the uptake of ICT-based innovations for information access in Kenya, lack of information about these is a major hinderance in their adoption.
We need to focus not just on coming up with ICT based applications and how to use thme for imporved productivity, but equally on maximizing their use by promoting them and spreading their 'gospel'.
Submitted by Kamal Yakub on Tue, 12/03/2013 - 18:07
Enabling global collaborative farming by linking real farms in rural areas with millions of online investors.
Now, removing the obstacles that small holder farmers face is the most crucial effective tool. Most Rural people have little or no formal education, they do not know what institution is available to assist them like UN-FAO and other development Agencies. They cannot go to local Agriculture Extension offices and financial institution to seek for advice or capital to start/improve their farms. The irrational fear of institutions/organisations that are set up to assist them (for example, Minisries of Agriculture, District Agriculture Offices etc.) is happening.
Due to the above reason which basically comes down to funds and technical know how, Agriculture in poor/rural areas has become a career for eople without school knowledge. It is therefore unattractive to youth with little or higher education. Ladies even frowned on marrying those who have chosen Agriculture as career.
I am saying this because I grew up in a typical village setting from central Region of Ghana, have little education and have decided to tackle this in my own small way (www.farmable.me)
The solutions are many but can be tackled one at a time. some of these include;
1. Rebranding farming and presenting it to the youth nicely through Social Media, Websites, and SMS.
2. Making capital easy and accessible for those interested in Agriculture and related businesses.
3. Creating platforms that connect Agriculture to investors in small monetary amounts with returns on investoment. Once food becomes abundant it will cheap and hunger and peoverty will be a story of the past.
There is abundant Agriculture Land in Africa where these poor/rural people leave, all they need is a career that they feel respected doing, easy access to capital and technical know.
NOTE: In doing this, We should not forget to deal with them in business terms, where the Agribusiness environment created is a collaborative one, which invloves buying and selling with them as partners, which will subsequently lead to revenues and pofit generation.
Many Thanks,
Kamal Yakub
Ghana
[email protected]
Now, removing the obstacles that small holder farmers face is the most crucial effective tool. Most Rural people have little or no formal education, they do not know what institution is available to assist them like UN-FAO and other development Agencies. They cannot go to local Agriculture Extension offices and financial institution to seek for advice or capital to start/improve their farms. The irrational fear of institutions/organisations that are set up to assist them (for example, Minisries of Agriculture, District Agriculture Offices etc.) is happening.
Due to the above reason which basically comes down to funds and technical know how, Agriculture in poor/rural areas has become a career for eople without school knowledge. It is therefore unattractive to youth with little or higher education. Ladies even frowned on marrying those who have chosen Agriculture as career.
I am saying this because I grew up in a typical village setting from central Region of Ghana, have little education and have decided to tackle this in my own small way (www.farmable.me)
The solutions are many but can be tackled one at a time. some of these include;
1. Rebranding farming and presenting it to the youth nicely through Social Media, Websites, and SMS.
2. Making capital easy and accessible for those interested in Agriculture and related businesses.
3. Creating platforms that connect Agriculture to investors in small monetary amounts with returns on investoment. Once food becomes abundant it will cheap and hunger and peoverty will be a story of the past.
There is abundant Agriculture Land in Africa where these poor/rural people leave, all they need is a career that they feel respected doing, easy access to capital and technical know.
NOTE: In doing this, We should not forget to deal with them in business terms, where the Agribusiness environment created is a collaborative one, which invloves buying and selling with them as partners, which will subsequently lead to revenues and pofit generation.
Many Thanks,
Kamal Yakub
Ghana
[email protected]
Submitted by Megan Mayzelle on Wed, 12/04/2013 - 17:40
Mr. Kamal, I'm having trouble accessing/locating any project information on your website. Do you know if viewing is limited in some countries? Thanks.
Submitted by Kamal Yakub on Wed, 12/04/2013 - 18:50
We are still developing the website. if what you see is the big cow with pictures of social investors and the sign up page then its right. We are hoping to go live before new year.
You can sign up to be among the first people to receive updates from us.
Many thanks,
Kamal.
You can sign up to be among the first people to receive updates from us.
Many thanks,
Kamal.
Submitted by Alvarez Garrido Rafael on Wed, 12/04/2013 - 06:34
Hi Mr Kamal
I would like to congratulate you about the important ideas you have express in your post.
My first impression was that your perspective was idealist, but once i get into your web i was impressed about what you and your colleagues have been able to do, "rebranding farming and presenting it to the youth nicely through Social Media, Websites, and SMS" and i understand how important is your key question: Enabling global collaborative farming by linking real farms in rural areas with millions of online investors.
This is the first time during this post that i see clearly how could it be the financial problems that small farmers have in poor areas in the world be solved in the future at a great scale.
Your idea about how to use crowfunding to invest in a cow, get benefits and help farmers to develop a career that they feel respected and profitable for them could be easily a trending topic in social media and could promote farming in the area you well know where you have designed to start your project. I think is very important that your idea has an ethic strength perspective in values to be prepared to grow with succed: every good or bad news in media goes very fast.
I have some questions about this:
- Is your strategy to grow in other agriculture areas like annual crops or tree plantations? It is not so easy to control prices and the value chain if we don´t solve marketing intermediates
- Do you want to collaborate with fundations or similar with experience in field to solve farmers problems, like gender problems that are been talking in this post or similar?
- What is your approach to use new technologies to help this growers to be more efficient?
- Doyou think that your approach could help the empowerment of training farmers and technical staff that are necessary to develop your ideas?
Submitted by Kiringai Kamau on Wed, 12/04/2013 - 09:32
Is your strategy to grow in other agriculture areas like annual crops or tree plantations? It is not so easy to control prices and the value chain if we don´t solve marketing intermediates
If I get your question well, you seek to know if I have a strategy for growing annual crops and tree plantations in agricultural areas... and that it may be impossible to control prices.
My contention is that the challenge of market intermediaries is the creation of agribusiness enterprises. Aggregation of outputs of any value chain layer helps address market intermediary challenge.
Do you want to collaborate with foundations or similar with experience in field to solve farmers problems, like gender problems that are been talking in this post or similar?
Foundations are necessary to support investment and creation of sustainable agribusinesses since cost of money is very high. Sustainable programmes call for term investors or angel investors whose desire is to create something that thrives sustainably.
What is your approach to use new technologies to help these growers to be more efficient?
Efficiency of smallholders comes from knowledge and its dissemination. The technologies best suited for this include FM Radio, the internet, mobile phones and of course our own technology on digital weighing and linkage to database solutions that drive ERPs.
Do you think that your approach could help the empowerment of training farmers and technical staff that are necessary to develop your ideas?
I am currently involved in a knowledge management perspective in the CAADP's programme on the Agricultural Training and Vocational Education and Training. Part of this effort is to promote agricultural staff training. Using the online learning programmes promoted by the Telecentre.org Academy, much of the training can be undertaken through hosted online databases. All our programmes are driven through training supported empowerment with Cisco and Telecentre learning programmes that engage both youth and women.
Kiringai
If I get your question well, you seek to know if I have a strategy for growing annual crops and tree plantations in agricultural areas... and that it may be impossible to control prices.
My contention is that the challenge of market intermediaries is the creation of agribusiness enterprises. Aggregation of outputs of any value chain layer helps address market intermediary challenge.
Do you want to collaborate with foundations or similar with experience in field to solve farmers problems, like gender problems that are been talking in this post or similar?
Foundations are necessary to support investment and creation of sustainable agribusinesses since cost of money is very high. Sustainable programmes call for term investors or angel investors whose desire is to create something that thrives sustainably.
What is your approach to use new technologies to help these growers to be more efficient?
Efficiency of smallholders comes from knowledge and its dissemination. The technologies best suited for this include FM Radio, the internet, mobile phones and of course our own technology on digital weighing and linkage to database solutions that drive ERPs.
Do you think that your approach could help the empowerment of training farmers and technical staff that are necessary to develop your ideas?
I am currently involved in a knowledge management perspective in the CAADP's programme on the Agricultural Training and Vocational Education and Training. Part of this effort is to promote agricultural staff training. Using the online learning programmes promoted by the Telecentre.org Academy, much of the training can be undertaken through hosted online databases. All our programmes are driven through training supported empowerment with Cisco and Telecentre learning programmes that engage both youth and women.
Kiringai
Submitted by Kamal Yakub on Wed, 12/04/2013 - 11:10
Hello Alvarez,
Thanks so much for taking the time to go through our website. That shows how interested you are in the fight against poverty and extreme hunger.
This platform will not allow me to answer your questions in detail but I will try.
Many thanks,
Kamal Yakub.
[email protected]
Thanks so much for taking the time to go through our website. That shows how interested you are in the fight against poverty and extreme hunger.
This platform will not allow me to answer your questions in detail but I will try.
- Farmable is formed from two words- 'Farm' and 'able', which means abilty to farm. We are starting with cattle to create a robust module and then apply it to other areas of farming/agriculture. It is easy to apply the model to annual crops and tree plantations and it in our Business Plan. I agree about price control in the fragmented value chain. Here Farmable has devided it's business operations into three namely; Farmable Online Business Unit(FOBU), Social Enterprice Unit(SEU) and Ghana Beef Company Ltd.
- The SEU involves field operations with strategic partners including Development Agencies, NGOs and Universities, that will work together to improve the capacity of Smallholder cattle farmers and the health of their herds. There are more women in rural areas than men due to so many factors and so our focus in the partnership with small holder farmers will be on rural women.
- We are creating partnership with small holder farmers and list their farms on our online platform, showcase progress of their farming activities through videos and SMS to online investors. We will have access to their farms through our farm management tool.
- Our approach is simple partnership. Once our small holder partner farmers know that they are part of the system, our training and capacity buiding will become a routine business process in their daily lives. What is happening now is that NGOs, Develepment Agencies ang Government extension officers organise training for small holder farmers and the leave them to their faith. Farmable will change this. what they need is an enabling Agri-business environment to play in and that is what Farmable model is based on. We will raise funds for them through our FOBU, Partner with them and build their capacity through SEU and market the products through Ghana Beef Company Ltd.
Many thanks,
Kamal Yakub.
[email protected]
Submitted by Kiringai Kamau on Wed, 12/04/2013 - 07:43
When an agribusiness enterprise is mapped to act as the linkage to the market for agricultural produce, superimposing ICT solutions at all layers of the chain engages youth, women and men alike. Backed by this thinking, I want to submit that the biggest challenge in agriculture is our addressing the sector as distinct operational silos and not a continuum.
This view may call for reason to be excused as someone who has listened to me many times told me that I tend to sound like a carpenter whose tool in trade is a hammer, and believes that the problem is always a nail. My effort to integrate the value chain may seem to make me that proverbial carpenter but I have always contested that much as I use it as the basis of explaining my thinking, I always seek to contextualize my discourse.
That said; my experience in the daily sector has been to integrate our basic ICT solution to agriculture which is the digital hand held scale into farmer owned agribusiness initiatives. My contention is that the choice of ICTs, that have no domicile, alienates producers. Creating a physical space where knowledge is shared on a one on one basis promotes understanding. Having the sharing backed by the internet or other local computer or video solutions as has been noted in the model of the acclaimed digital green business model presents a home grown solution.
With the agribusiness organizational model housed in a digital centre that links the produce aggregated at the centre for economies of scale in volume aggregation for marketing helps in joint marketing and payment.
Our dairy sector experience has been that the knowledge centre which we have come to dub the Resource, Aquaculture, Value Addition, Agribusiness and Knowledge (RAVAAK) Centre engages women, youth, and men. This is what we did in the dairy sector and can be used in all value chains.
While women and youth are the labor in the farm and all wealth goes to the owner of the household resources who is the man, creating an agribusiness enterprise as a cooperative for aggregating agricultural produce and marketing can also have other businesses associated with it. We have formed a savings and credit cooperative as the arm for paying the farmers and we have also integrated retail outlets also owned by the producer and marketing cooperative. What this means is that the family uses the produce to procure for their household needs whether or not they have money, so long as they have the produce delivered to the cooperative to guarantee their payment for the credit. The cooperative Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO) also issues cheques in its name for producers who have a need to pay for anything on the strength of their produce.
In essence, the foregoing ensures that the family members that are authorized can take goods and make payments on credit and therefore are not alienated from their productivity outcomes. This then means that using the digital scale to capture produce weight, process the data for payment from the digital scale using a youth developed agribusiness ERP, run their organization using the same ERP, relay information on payments and credits using SMS and make payments using mPayment of the balance that has not been consumed through credit, we have a totally integrated ICT solution that ensures that women, youth and men are all actors in the value chain. Since the men only take what remains, the role of the ICTs to promote transparency and effectiveness makes it possible for women and men to share transparently and using societal pressure as the tool to ensure that men even they are pig headed in their houses are reminded in public gatherings the gains the cooperative is achieving in social development.
In a nutshell, it is necessary to combine the power of ICTs with organizational or business modeling to ensure gender equity or parity and to make youth actors through ICTs solution development and service provision from the knowledge end.
Kiringai
This view may call for reason to be excused as someone who has listened to me many times told me that I tend to sound like a carpenter whose tool in trade is a hammer, and believes that the problem is always a nail. My effort to integrate the value chain may seem to make me that proverbial carpenter but I have always contested that much as I use it as the basis of explaining my thinking, I always seek to contextualize my discourse.
That said; my experience in the daily sector has been to integrate our basic ICT solution to agriculture which is the digital hand held scale into farmer owned agribusiness initiatives. My contention is that the choice of ICTs, that have no domicile, alienates producers. Creating a physical space where knowledge is shared on a one on one basis promotes understanding. Having the sharing backed by the internet or other local computer or video solutions as has been noted in the model of the acclaimed digital green business model presents a home grown solution.
With the agribusiness organizational model housed in a digital centre that links the produce aggregated at the centre for economies of scale in volume aggregation for marketing helps in joint marketing and payment.
Our dairy sector experience has been that the knowledge centre which we have come to dub the Resource, Aquaculture, Value Addition, Agribusiness and Knowledge (RAVAAK) Centre engages women, youth, and men. This is what we did in the dairy sector and can be used in all value chains.
While women and youth are the labor in the farm and all wealth goes to the owner of the household resources who is the man, creating an agribusiness enterprise as a cooperative for aggregating agricultural produce and marketing can also have other businesses associated with it. We have formed a savings and credit cooperative as the arm for paying the farmers and we have also integrated retail outlets also owned by the producer and marketing cooperative. What this means is that the family uses the produce to procure for their household needs whether or not they have money, so long as they have the produce delivered to the cooperative to guarantee their payment for the credit. The cooperative Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO) also issues cheques in its name for producers who have a need to pay for anything on the strength of their produce.
In essence, the foregoing ensures that the family members that are authorized can take goods and make payments on credit and therefore are not alienated from their productivity outcomes. This then means that using the digital scale to capture produce weight, process the data for payment from the digital scale using a youth developed agribusiness ERP, run their organization using the same ERP, relay information on payments and credits using SMS and make payments using mPayment of the balance that has not been consumed through credit, we have a totally integrated ICT solution that ensures that women, youth and men are all actors in the value chain. Since the men only take what remains, the role of the ICTs to promote transparency and effectiveness makes it possible for women and men to share transparently and using societal pressure as the tool to ensure that men even they are pig headed in their houses are reminded in public gatherings the gains the cooperative is achieving in social development.
In a nutshell, it is necessary to combine the power of ICTs with organizational or business modeling to ensure gender equity or parity and to make youth actors through ICTs solution development and service provision from the knowledge end.
Kiringai