Introduction

Hi, my name is François Laureys. For more personal info see my page on Facebook: [url]http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1094435058[/url] I am Country Programme Manager for IICD (International Institute for Communications and Development [url]http://www.iicd.org[/url]) in Burkina Faso and Mali. Both in Mali and in Burkina Faso, IICD currently supports 5 projects (per country) which are related to Agriculture, and try to integrate ICT's in their work. Multimedia, Internet, database development, slideshows - in order to enhance production (techniques), commercialisation, farmers' lobbying etc. Up till now, mobile phones have of course been used in and by these partners, but not so much in a specific way related to the organisations' objective(s). Together with Manobi (Senegalese company which specializes in mobile applications for farmers) and one of our partners, the mango-exporters Fruilema in Mali, we are about to pilot the use of PDA's for data collection in rural areas (related to traceability and certification demands).[/url]