Forum: "Using ICT to enable Agricultural Innovation Systems for smallholders" September, 2012
Question 1 (opens 17 Sept.)
11/09/2012
What ICT innovations are being used for farmers to access and exchange the information they need, and for service providers to provide information to farmers?
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May I introduce Sustaination? It's like a professional food trade network with an emphasis on SME, sustainability, and relocalisation.
It's a little like "LinkedIn for local food and farmers" (as Fast Company put it) which makes it quick and easy for food business to be found, connect, and trade.
We use technology to rebalance things in favour of small food businesses. We help you find new trade partners , relocalise , and access real-time opportunities. It's a professional network serving every type of food business , from farm to fork, at every scale and turnover. It's free for most small users (we price by turnover) and you can find out more at www.sustaination.co Thanks for this input about Sustaination. I read that it is active in the UK. Is it active in any developing country? Or if not, how could it be?
Thank you Riggs,
I am a Burundi young entrepreneur on Internet, ICT in agribusiness and poultry programs with particular attention to a mobile phone connected to web-Internet Protocol (IP) or Over Voice Internet Protocol.
I have my own lands for agriculture in rural area of Burundi but I missed investors to exploit them. I have trained small group of young students in our council for Africa Youth Organization Union (CAYOU) and in Jeancka University Iduka Chapter to use Cell phone connected to help farmers and people in poultry program via a phone associated to a web on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
I am looking for new sponsorer, partner and grant foundation to launch our latest step of this farming project that use mobile phone for food security, health and improving preservation of environment, and skills in ICT, access to shelter, clean water and solar energy in rural area.
Thanks
Jean Claude Kamwenubusa
Email: [email protected]
We are interested in knowing what communications means are used by Farmers in remote regions, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa, to access ICT.
In these regions, Internet access is not always easy unless the user instals a satellite terminal. Classic satellite connections use VSATs which entails hight equipment and service costs.
We provide mini-VSAT based, low cost, high quality internet access via satellite in Sub-Saharan Africa and are interested in bringing our solution to farmers in the region.
Fulvio, the communication industry in sub-saharan Africa has developed with telecoms introducing mobile internet (accessible on mobile phones) as well as dongles (modems) etc for computers. These tools are much cheaper to use with internet access as low as $0.4 for 100MB (In Uganda). Don't you think these simple internet points are cheaper than installing VSATs? I think, if a farmer leader has access to an information source, then the entire farmer group is bound to benefit.
Hi Bruce,
Yes of course where mobile broadband is available this is an excellent option for internet access as far as no quality of service is required. We travel extensively in West and Central Africa, and our experience with dongles and mobile internet is very varied. Some times you get good connections up to 200-250Kbps, some times, especially during day time, you struggle to open gmail in html format!!
In addition, mobile broadband while generally available in business districts of large cities, becomes very unreliable or even totally absent in rural areas.
Now, I am not aware of many farmers growing their crops in the centre of Lagos or Luanda!! We have more than 600 active users at the moment and growing by tens per month, and these are mainly SoHos, SMEs or small offices or agencies of large companies in sub-urban or rural areas where mobile broadband is either too unreliable or totally absent. These customers want a reliable, good quality connection, but cannot afford the prices, both equipment and subscription, of classic VSAT. We provide them with a good service available everywhere at a price that is a fraction of classic VSAT. But it is not mobile, of course.
I think our solution might be of interest to farmers to access the internet, for price checking and many other ICT-enabled features. We are currenly in discussions to equip a large number of farms for security purposes.
You can have a look at what we do at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKVCJLxjG8Q
Fulvio.. across the East and Sub Saharan region there are commercial networks including Safaricom, ZAIN and Orange. the majority of commercial or donor funded interventions will partner with an existing network which farmers are linked to.
As Bruce mentions, local bandwidth continues to become more and more affordable for both basic phone, sms and internet access. The bigger challenge accessing the internet is a more affordable smart phone but even here we have seen cost drop up to 40% in less than 18 months. I fully expect to see a basic android on the market costing less than $25 in another 18 months.
From people's experience, is it necessary to identify and differentiate different information content/processes and the ICT that is best suited to it? Or is mobile (phone) technology growing fast enough and mobile voice/data service price falling fast enough that one can (should?) wait for this nearly ubiquitious tool to catch up to the information need?
Hi Rachel,
I don't know where you are based, but we travel to Africa all the time. We have in our pockets sim cards of Airtel (DRC, Congo, Burkina Faso, Ghana), Glo (Nigeria), Vodafone (DRC, Kenia), Orange (Ivory Coast, Cameroon), MTN (RSA, Cameroon), just to mention a few.
We know very well the mobile operators offerings in all these countries and I can assure you that the coverage out of large cities is often quite poor already for voice services, totally unreliable for data services. Population density and expected ARPU are such that all these operators will never invest the billions of dollars needed to provide full country coverage. This might partially happen in small and relatively richer countries like Gambia, Rwanda, Guinea Bissau, but will never happen in large countries like Nigeria, Cameroon, DRC, RSA, etc.
So, allow me to disagree with you: mobile cellular broadband will not be the one-size-fits-all solution for internet access in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially for remote regions.
Local bandwidth becomes more and more affordable, as you say, but is and will continue to be limited in coverage to densely populated urban areas. And unless we want to see even stronger urbanisation in these countries, solutions bringing ICT to remote regions at affordable prices should be encouraged.
And we are an existing network, surely smaller than mobile operators network, but totally committed to bringing affordable and ubiquitous internet access to businesses and citizens in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Cheers, Fulvio
Fulvio, do you offer only internet connection in the communities you are operating or something more than that?
Hi Bruce,
We offer Internet connections, which can then be used for any communication purpose, and VOIP. We work with local partners distributor for reaching the end users and with NGOs or other similar organisations in specific projects where special content is needed.
For example we work with an NGO in South Africa on an e-learning project, with a large Intergovernmental Organisation in DRC for rural radios, with Electoral Commissions in 10 countries in West and Central Africa for e-voting, etc.
We would be delighted to start an e-agriculture project with a relevant organisation in this field.
Cheers, Fulvio
Fulvio, can you please share some ideas on the operation of the e-agriculture project you mentioned, am sure there are many potential partners reading?
Bruce,
Thanks for the invitation.
We focus on providing low cost/ high quality connectivity and leave the content part to the specialists. I was mentioning our interest in the forum to hear about projects which find difficulties in getting information or applications to the rural areas.
We would be eager to offering our contribution on this specific matter.
Greet Bruce,
This initiative interests me in Burundi. We are working to empower 70 rural small farmers and poultry NGOs via a project on mobile phone connected to a web and via VoIP services in Burundi,
We need new partner to run this useful project for small people.
Hello Dear Fulvio;
It is one of the major contribution to wards developmnet of rural farmers but one thing that we need to cosnider is thier eduacttional level. Hence such gap could be addresses if we present any inforamtion interms of animation or speech.
Emmanuel, thanks for that input. For sure before we think about all these connectivity issues, something that should be considered first is the educational level of the farmers. A lot of useful information has been (and still being) developed and uploaded but the end user (rural local farmers) has not benefited just because of that gap.
For a number of years, we have been actively involved in translating and diluting lots of information resources that we later disseminate to the rural farmers through the different media that we operate.
On many occassions, we have been involved in training different groups of people in accessing web content and using the different ICT services but the main challenge has always been the language gap.
In Ghana's Upper East Region, an agriculture extension worker may only visit a village once per year. And then, he -- because it's almost always a male -- gathers the men around a tree. But the women --who do much of the actual farming-- are busy caring for children, and may not hear how to improve their crops, how they can plant differently by spacing seeds out to an optimal distance, or prepare their soil differently. All things where they didn’t need to buy some special seed. Instead, it was just doing things a different way from what they’ve learned from their ancestors.
And even if they do listen while doing childcare, how are these people without literacy going to remember the new techniques? How will they ask questions, get answers, reinforce this new knowledge?
If you don't have literacy, you can't write things down... what you learn in one hour may be forgotten or confused the next day.
This is where a simple audio computer that speaks in local language can really help. In fact, families that had intermittent access to Talking Books, grew 48% more food in a rigorous pilot study, published in the journal, Information Technologies & International Development, and summarized here: http://www.literacybridge.org/our-mission/pilot-results
I work with the Lagos State Agricultural Development Authority (Nigeria), we use the radio to reach our farmers in remote locations. Recently Government initiated the use of SMS to sell directly to crop farmers in need of fertiliser. This removes midle men who are often the cause of high prices. However, few of the small holder farmers who have access to the internet often complain about cost. Our organisation together with the World bank sponsored Fadama (dry season farming) project launched an ICT clinic, with the aim of providing resources/ information and access to farmers who can come to make use of the facility. However, the farmer may need to bear a huge cost on transportation to get to the facility which is situated in the town and the internet speed could be incredibly fruastrating and service charges prohibitive. How, can your organisation be of use?
Hi Elliot,
Thank you for your enquiry.
We provide low cost / high quality internet access that is available everywhere.
Our communications solution may, for example allow decentralising the facility you were mentioning into a number of smaller and rural access points so to drastically reduce the transportation costs for farmers.
We have a similar experience with a completely different application that shares the same issue of decentralisation: money transfer. Large internetational money transfer networks allow transactions between large cities, but transportation cost and inconvenience prevent the use of these networks by people leaving in rural areas that would need to go to the capital city to get their remittance. We have among our customers local/regional money transfer companies that allow transactions through very small offices (2-3 PCs) in very remote places. We provide them the ubiquitous, low cost, high quality communications means necessary to process transactions in real time with total security. This allows people in rural areas to get remittances and is an engine for development.
Please give a look at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKVCJLxjG8Q
to get more information.
India's current agricultural extension system often fails to effectively communicate with small and marginal farmers. Over several decades, public investment in agriculture has fallen. Some of this decrease has been offset by the private sector, but such investment tends to concentrate on larger, more mechanised farms. But Digital Green an Indian non- profit organisation has demonstrated that a participatory process of engagement with small and marginal farmers, coupled with the production and screening of training videos born out of that process of engagement, is a more effective method of transmitting low cost agricultural innovations.
Digital Green is an organisation that works to increase agricultural productivity by training small and marginal farmers via short instructional videos. The organisation collaborates with local partners to train rural communities to produce videos by farmers, of farmers, and for farmers, and promote the exchange of information on agricultural practices. The videos feature local farmers, speaking in local languages, sharing personal experiences utilizing a particular agricultural practice. Examples include the use of improved seeds; new planting or harvesting techniques; the building of compost pits; natural pest control; the development of kitchen or homestead gardens; and other practices across relevant agricultural value-chains.
Once videos are produced, they are shown in villages by local intermediaries among small groups of farmers on a weekly basis using portable, battery-operated projectors. The mediators explain the techniques, answer questions, encourage, and track adoptions of the behavior. The Digital Green approach uses a "dialogue" or "reflective" process among peers, rather than a traditional approach of outside "experts" telling clients what they should do. Videos also highlight early adopters of innovation. While the videos provide excitement and a focal point, it is the engagement and empowerment of people and social dynamics, which drives the model’s success. Enthusiasm over new technology and innovation in general, and the thrill of appearing on video or seeing fellow community members on video motivates individuals to participate. The power of positive identification with peers is leveraged to minimize the distance between teacher and learner, and to maximize the adoption of the practices or behaviors being modelled.
Further, to support a continuous process of self appraisal and monitoring, Digital Green has developed a robust technology platform that tracks metrics necessary for evaluating and adapting its programs. The platform, has been designed to function under conditions of intermittent power supply and internet connectivity, features an open-access suite of analytics dashboards. Careful data management allows Digital Green to track the location of each video screened, the mediator who presents the video at each screening, and the farmers who have viewed each video, those who have asked questions about the new techniques, and those who have ultimately taken them up on their own farms.
The tracking of questions creates an iterative platform through which also Digital Green and its partners are able not only to disseminate information, but also to learn about how that information can better address such commonly asked questions of farmers viewing the videos.
The Digital Green on a cost per adoption basis has been found to be at least ten times more effective and seven times more likely to encourage farmers to adopt new practices compared to conventional agricultural extension systems, such as Farmer Field Schools, or Training and Visit extension.
Digital Green's network of partners and communities have produced over 2,200 videos and reached out to 110,000 farmers across 1,100 villages in India. Over the next 3.5 years, Digital Green aims to reach at least 1 million farmers across 10,000 villages in India and other parts of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Ritu, thank you for the detailed information about Digital Green. Could you also tell us:
- How long as Digital Green been in operation?
- What are the types of funding that keep Digital Green going?
Thank you!
Hi Michael,
Digital Green started off as a Microsoft Research in 2006.In 2009, Digital Green was registered as a society in India and as a foundation in the United States. In 2010, it initiated operations in India and in 2011 began operations in Africa.
Further, Digital Green is supported by national and international donors and we have also partnered with governments.
Hi Ritu raj, Digital Green sounds great, I must check it out. I think video is a great way to connect farmers, there is a local project near us called Pasture Promise TV where farmers post educational videos around pasture management. Also another UK project called Farmers on Film , you may have met Sarah on Twitter?, she heads up the initiative and was doing her very best to get farmers noticed during the Olympics for the important work they do.
Hi Wefarmit,
Thanks for the appreciation! I will definitely connect with Sarah on Twitter.Also thanks for providing information about Pasture Promise TV it sounds interesting.
Hi, Ritu, thanks for info on Digital Green, which I have heard of. It is very effective way of helping spreading good practices. Do you work in the Africa region. besides in India? Do you know if there are initiatives like yours in Africa?
Hi wbicc-csa,
We have started work in Ethopia and Ghana. Agriculture extension in Africa comprises of dessimination of information through agriculture extension workers, farmer field schools and there also service providers who use internet based facilities to communicate best practices to farmers(http://www.satadsl.net/).
There is also an intiative by International Institute for Commuication and Development in West Africa similar to our's wherein they train farmers in innovative production and techniques for sustainable management of natural resources, using video, photos and digital presentations.(http://www.new-ag.info/en/focus/focusItem.php?a=2748)
Further, the IICD's intiative is similar to our intiative. But in our we also provide mediated dessimination of information and the videos are prepared by farmer, of farmers and for farmers. Therefore, we encourage peer to peer learning.
Thanks Ritu Raj for your detailed information on Digital Green.
Most of ICT for agricultural extension projects in India, after few years of implementation, generally face problem in sustainability and scaling-up issues. Interestingly, Digital Green scaled-up and your target for next 3.5 years sounds great. How you are addressing sustainability issues and scaling-up (especially diverse country like India)
Hi Saravananraj,
For addressing the issues of sustainability and scale especially in India we have partnered with several non-governmental organisation and government to integrate the Digital Green model within the public extension system.
Thanks Ritu Raj for your informaion on Digital Green. Quite interesting public (public extension) and private partnership (NGos).....As i understand, In India, there are large number of NGOs and number of public departments/ organisations involved in agricultural extension..i just wonder...how Digital Green chooses suitable public/ private partners? any partnership arrangement? what challenges you face when working differnet set of partners?..
Hi Saravananraj,
Thanks for the enquiry. Digital Green partners with organisations based on the following parameters:
1) Well established extension system and community out-reach
2)Domain expertise and ability to scale operations
3) Well established community rapport
One of the main challenge we face while working with partners is to make them realise and appreciate the model and at the same time ensure that process and content quality at every level is internalised and achieved.
Dear Members,
I work for The Department for International Development (DFID) and I am also a postgraduate student at Birkbeck, University of London, where I am completing a MSc. in International Business and Development.
I am extremely interested in the near ubiquity of mobile phones, the massive growth of mobile networks in developing countries and the huge potential this has in closing information gaps between the developing world and the developed world and thus closing the agricultural productivity gap.
To this end, I am currently writing my dissertation on the socio-economic impact of mobile phones on smallholder farmers. As Agricultural, Development and ICT professionals and/ or users of mobile agricultural information services I would like to invite you to participate in a very short online survey that should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NHMZTT5All responses will remain anonymous and will be used for no other purpose than to either prove or disprove the hypothesis generated by my dissertation as arrived at by a comprehensive review of the literature on mobiles for development.
Please share with your networks,
You can also connect with me on twitter @mc37077442 or @m4dsurvey
Thank you
Kind regards
Following the introduction of a scratch and send label found on selected agro chemicals, farmers in Uganda can now verify using their mobile phones whether what they are buying is Genuine or Fake.
Unscrupulous entrepreneurs produce counterfeit pesticide packaging and fill it with inert product, sell inferior grain as quality seed and palm gravel off as fertilizer. Neither law enforcement agencies nor Ministries of Agriculture nor the private sector have been able to make any real headway in reducing this illegal trading which, according to Felix Jumbe, Executive Director of the Seed Trade Association of Malawi, “makes the poor poorer.”
With support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), IFDC is helping eliminate counterfeit crop protection products (CPPs) which account for about 30% of the agro chemical sales in Sub-Saharan Africa. IFDC staff members have designed a simple countermeasure and, in partnership with CropLife Africa Middle East (CLAME) and CropLife Uganda, has launched a program to scientifically test the effectiveness of the methodology.
When a farmer visits an agro dealer shop, they purchase an agro chemical which is specially marked with a scratch panel.
After scratching, a 12 digit number is displayed which the buyer sends to a short code number.
The manufacturer of the product sends an instant message informing the buyer whether the product is fake or genuine.
The program is using a simple technology called Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) which can be adopted by farmers even in remote areas on any mobile phone because it is similar to loading airtime and is well-known to everybody.
The program is supported by the Uganda Ministry of Agriculture, the Uganda National Agro-Input Dealers Association (UNADA) and the Grameen Foundation.
Bruce, what recourse does the farmer have if the product is found to be fake?
If the product is found fake, the farmers rejects the product. Please note that the authentication is made at the point of sale. The message displayed with the "Fake" comes with a toll free number which farmers call to alert the Crop Protection department of the Ministry of Agriculture. This is because the department has the mandate to fight counterfeits agro chemicals in Uganda. The ministry and system managers are also notified immediately a fake alert is registered in the system. They can call the buyer to find out the location and other details.
BruceK This scratch and send label sounds fantastic and wish you all the best, I believe that ICT has the answer to help with a lot of rural crime. There is a big problem with counterfeit meds but I never thought about agro chemicals being counterfeit. In the UK our main problem is becoming livestock theft and ICT applications are even starting to be seen here, such as retina scanning. This is very expensive though and a cheaper solution is needed to scanning the eye of every animal.
Bruce
I love anything that will help to eliminate the use of fake products. But just as critical is focusing on MRLs (maximum residue levels) at least in supporting export value chains. Yes, we want to protect commercial interests and farmer yields but farmers also need to learn how to use the right amount of approved product and avoid banned products.
But always happy to see basic sms being used effectively.
Rachel
Rachel, are there examples of ICT being used to support appropriate/sustainable use of agro-chemicals? Either through innovations in learning or application measurement and control?
Michael.. right now, we are planning a trial of KUZA Doctor a commercial value chain. Because they already have reports of MRLs directly impacting their harvest, we have established a baseline. Our primary goal is to report the impact of mobile training on their existing risk. The wholesale company simply wants to find a cost effective training intervention so will reflect a holisitic commercial venture.
To Rachel --
I am glad you raised this point about MRLs, what I see as a broader point about developing and innovating different ways to use mobiles, apps, and ICT for farm management. Applications that can functions as decision tools for available fertilizers/inputs on the market, postharvest services, amount recommended for specifc acreage and particular crop, etc.
These decision tools can draw from an ecosystem of relevant information and data -- such as farm size recorded from GPS app on a mobile phone, weekly/daily and location-based input price data, and farmer profiles that can store and link this information.
We have not yet seen the 'ecosystem of content' and data evolve in the least developed countries, but it has certainly started, and what is moreso, the dire lack of existing reources an tools make these ICT solutions and tools all the more relevant and promising for improved agricultural devlopment and production.
Jill .. Feel free to email me directly if you would like a more complete profile or our training tool. It's primary goal is to collate expert content / advice designed for smallholder farmers. Becuase we actively train in the dirt, we are simply translating this expertise and existing content into a mobile deliery tool. In the future, we will need support to develop better training materials, like training videos. Working in Kenya translates into limitless resources and technical experts.
Rachel,
Our project has focused on training the agro dealers as TOTs to farmers. Because they interface with farmers, they are in best position to advice farmers on proper use. We have also developed a video which we are showing in different rural communities of ofcourse warning farmers against buying fake but also has some elements of proper use. To view the 14 minute video, click here . Your feedback will be highly appreciated
Bruce.. Please email me.. I would love to see if we can adopt any of your existing content into our mobile application to support Kenyan farmers.
Hello BackpackFarmKenya;
one of the challenges in disseminating information need is the availability of dynamic and localized information to famer . It is nice to hear that you have such content for. to this end, I classified those information need of farmers as follows:
a. Pre-sowing Phase - Information like about agricultural inputs, new vetc…
b. Pre-harvest Phase : like Pest/weed/ management,
c. Post-harvest Phase : like Storage, Grading and standardization, and logistics ;
d. Marketing Phase: like Commodity price,
Please email me we will share those information in a full document form. I am also very much happy to see the way you priorzed farmers information need .
Email: [email protected]
Sir, I think you may be missing a few phases of information for primary production. As a commercial company we do not openly share our sms content but you are welcome to download our primary TOT training manual from our homepage and develop your own.
-R-
Bruce,
This is really great. Just recently in our village, a farmer purchased weed master to deal with weeds in his maize garden, which was about 10 acres. Unfortunately after planting and spraying, 2 weeks passed but the weeds were not showing any sign of dying, and on returning to the Agrochemicals shop where he purchased, they refused to make any refund.
I wonder why the Ministry of Agriculture has not taken responsibility to spread such useful information to the rural farmers who are still cheated by these fake vendors.
So Bruce, how can we help disserminate this message to the rural farmers?
What are the steps used and how can the farmer identify that scratch panel?
and do you think that all the products on market now have got this scratch panel?
Thanks
Jimmie,
It was so unfortunate for that farmer to buy a product which did not work - moreso losing the money. We've realized that it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between a genuine and fake product.
You can disseminate this message to farmers through this video, click here . We are also using Radio, SMS and Voice messaging to reach out to the farming communities. Just let me know where you are in Uganda and work out something.
The scratch panel is vividly displayed at the bottom of the 1 litre bottle. After identifying the sticker, scratch it like you do with an airtime card and send the 12 digit code to 6799. Immediately, you will receive a response whether the product is fake, genuine or you entered an invalid number.
This initiative is currently available on only three products; Roundup, Mamba and Dursban and hope to have it spread to other products/brands after this season. I believe Bukoola will be the first since his products are also suffering. Thank you
Thanks very much Bruce for this quick reaction.
Am working with Nakaseke Community Multimedia Centre, located in Nakaseke District of Uganda, Central Region, 40km from the capital, 10km off Kampala Gulu Rd. The Centre also broadcasts a community radio at 102.9 Frequency Modulation. We usually disseminate such information to rural farmers through our community radio and village visits to farmers.
So i hope we can be in touch and see how we can work together on this issue.
This is my contact info;
email: [email protected]
Cell: +256 782 699495
Dear Assena, How effective is feedback from farmers on information dessiminated to them. I am aware that you also conduct field visits what are the coverage areas and farmer concentrations? Richard
Richard
An interesting development which will definitely help the seed trade and indeed any input. It would be interesting to know why a 12 digit number...do the digits have a meaning so that multiple products from different vendors can be authenticated by the same MAS using the number coding as the differentiating elements and hence making the algorithm for authentication easier to handle?
Given the plethora of support organizations, this initiative needs to be driven by a focus on sustainability...what measure of this is integrated into the implementation? Kiringai