Improving Information Access for Farmers: How Can This Be Achieved?

Hello am from Uganda, my biggest concern is the rural farmer, who produces most of the products, but because of limited access to information, sell his products at low prices, due to lack of access to market information. there is need to improve on communication infrastructures in the rural areas, to allow fair bargain.

Hi, I am from Bangladesh and happy to be part of this forum. Recently, we have conducted an assessment of information need for the farmers, which has shown that the farmers require information about new technologies, inputs, market, etc. But there is no channel which they can depend on for getting right information in right time. Most of farmers do not have access to the most popular information channel like TV, so they alway received distorted or incomplete messages. For clear understanding, farmers need to discuss with the local extension workers who visit them not very frequently. Use of radio is also decreasing in the country due to high cost of battry. Internet connectivity is not sufficient even up to district level. Mobile is available in the villages but farmers are not using it to get agricultural information. Rarely, some farmers collect market information for their products. Print media is not that much like by the farmers for illiteracy and cost. What to do in this situation?

What to do under the circumstance described is I believe, a problem being faced by most developing countries, Ghana included. We do face a similar situation in our attempt to disseminate information to farmers. We are experimenting with radio among the many technologies available at the moment. Recently introduced phone-in segment where farmers are required to call into the programme to ask questions from the resource persons.

dear issah

Dear Issah, Many thanks for your comments, and sorry for this late reply! You make 2 points I'd like to follow up: First, the issue of radio. You mention it as a Godsend...Ccan you explain a little more how radio is being used in Tamale to get information to farmers? And with what impact? Second, you suggest that the key role of farmers in the production chain is not recognised. Do you have some ideas or concrete examples how ICTs, for example, could help alleviate this? Best regards Peter

Depending on what level we are operating, the types of informations we want to pass and to which target beneficiaries, there should always be the need to study which appropriate IT to use at what appropriate time. This then gives me the impression that the study should focuss on the appropriate IT that can be affordable to the last consumer of the our information. therefore as we discuss we should be able to use this forum to identify the IT tool that will enable both the researchers and agricultural extensionist to interact and produce better result; while not forgetting that the information needs, access and way of communication may differ. That is all for now, Godfrey Awany

It´s great to share experiences with you. Four major things need to be address in terms of accesability of farmers: - Their livehoods and conditions. - Their information needs, usually limited to market, technology and weather. (Out of the experience we have in Latin America) - Their language or way of understanding it. - The means to access it: ICT, extension, local chats, etc. Infraestructure as Miguel says usually is not the best. Radio al Content which has to be timelly and of quality. Well presented and in a language that can be understood by farmers. Extension services are an important bridge between information producers and end-users. Unfortunatelly their structures has been decaying since two decades. Even in some countries those services has shut down or are under private sector hands. ICT, comes as a solution, but a lot needs to be done in a region where the best scenario is between 15 or 20% of the population have access to the internet. We need to understand information as a "perishable good" that work as a chain: We have imputs to produce proper information, we have information producers, we have information transformers (some called it intelligence), we have information distributors and we have information users. All of that inside a social context and with a set of tools or means to use. Having a missing piece in any part of that chain will not give us a complete frame work. I hope inside our discussion we have that broad approach and discuss around each of those pieces? All the best, Federico Sancho Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture IICA

In Sudan our farmers prefer their own information which gained by experience, but this information undocumented. So our radio programs is about the results of Scientific research. Some of our researcher used their information but they do not refers to the origin. how are farmers to become as source of information and cand disseminate Rafaa Ghobrial NCR_DIC Sudan

Improving Information Access for Farmers: How Can This be Achieved? In last week's discussion participants debated the major factors in improving farmers' information access. Some of the questions for this week's discussion include: - What are the different important elements in enabling access at the front and back ends (i.e. getting the information into the system, and making sure farmers can access the system). How do these vary depending on the different kinds of information demanded? How do these vary depending on different demanders? Examples? - How can the private sector get involved in e-agriculture? What are some examples of successful private initiatives or public-private partnerships in e-agriculture and what made them successful? - What are the key factors in successful information management policies and strategies for agriculture? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here were some major points made last week, many applicable to the above questions: KEY FACTORS IN IMPROVING ACCESS - Communicating/packaging/delivering information effectively, Recognizing the different circumstances farmers face and building systems flexible enough to handle these. Federico Sancho mentioned four key areas: livelihoods and conditions, information needs, languages spoken, and means of accessing information (internet access, literacy, mobile coverage, etc) Bruce Ningakun made the point that a major focus must be put not just on collecting the right information, but on delivering it in a format which is accessible and will be accepted by farmers. - Involving the private sector, rather than just the government. Winston George argued that often it is difficult for rural stakeholders in many countries to hold their governments accountable and that when service delivery and funding are unsatisfactory, it can be difficult for stakeholders to do anything about it. Involving the private sector can sometimes shift the incentive structure and improve the situation. - Strong leadership and a long term strategy- several participants mentioned that often e-agriculture projects fail because they are not well planned and there is a focus on ICTs for their own sake or for political showcase purposes, rather than on making sure the end-goal of the project is improving people's lives. This can mean that funding and leadership are lost when these short term goals are fulfilled. - Winston George mentioned the usefulness of a strong but flexible legal framework and information management policy, which will outlast changes in government officials. - Other factors mentioned were capacity building, involving the entire staff of projects in the use of ICTs from the start, so they understand and buy in to their use, and using ICTs to improve back-end information processes. Federico Sancho also mentioned that we should look at information as a "perishable good' and make sure we understand its entire chain of being, from information producer to information consumer. - Paul Sillu said we should tackle e-Agriculture on a regional basis to facilitate different regions learning from one another. CHALLENGES FACED - Winston George argued that governments are often not accountable enough in providing agricultural services, and that stakeholders can't do much to improve their quality or level of funding. - Ben Addom mentioned that the research-production link is completely different in developing countries than in countries like the US, where most research is done commercially and paid for by farmers, rather than the government. - Several participants mentioned poor infrastructure (power, communications, roads) as a major difficulty, and Md. Mazrul Islam said that often it is difficult to even determine through which channel one can give farmers information- TV and radio are too expensive, extension visits are too infrequent , internet is inaccessible, mobiles are often not used for agricultural information, and illiteracy and cost make newspapers unviable. - Many Governments lack data and information management policies, and some even consider a Freedom of Information Act to be the same thing as an Information Management policy. - Often the importance of information has been neglected as a factor in improving farmers' lives, and therefore it receives less funding and priority than it should. - Other challenges mentioned were lack of political will, lack of senior management support for e-Agriculture projects, lack of funding, poor legislative frameworks, lack of human resources capacity, overambitious and politically motivated projects, and resistance to change OTHER KEY POINTS The major types of information mentioned were market information, weather information, and technical information for production and processing. Information was seen as crucial to helping farmers improve food availability and to market their goods at their true value, rather than letting other actors such as traders undervalue their products. Several methods of access were discussed. Paul Sillu mentioned Computer Information Centers, such as those in a USAID project in Kenya, online services, such as eadairy ([url]www.eadairy.com[/url]), and e-sokoni, and information centres run by successful farmers, who are already trusted by other farmers and therefore better equipped to pass information to them. Joel Sam mentioned radio call-in shows.