My name is Ahmad Mahdavi, I am a pesticide environmental toxicologist working on the important issue of pesticide regulations for developing countries. Mobile phones could be a usefull tool for communication between farmers about crop pests/ diseases and also pesticide informations. Generally communication is very important for decision making about different farming practices and mobile phones is a fast/ dependable tool. For example right now there are big communications going between European farmers regarding recent REACH laws and regulations and they need a fast way to communicate....
Submitted by Krishna Chandra Mishra on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 02:50
I am K.C.Mishra,a consultant on IT initiatives in India.The penetrastion of mobile phone in rural areas can be used as a platform for dissemination of information on agriculture which can be converted in to opportunities by the farmer .There are some issues which I would like to flag for discussion are Which category of farmers the technology should address ? is it the rich farmer or the small and marginal farmer? The user identification is a must for successful implementation of the initiatives. What type of information should be given to the farmer? Is it demand driven information or the supply driven? Whether information is derived from the local knowledge or from other sources?The succeess of any information system have to capture the local content,local knowledge and local language.
Submitted by Michael Riggs on Mon, 11/17/2008 - 05:27
Hello Ahmad Mahdavi, so glad you have joined this forum. Please check the first discussion question which is now posted under the new thread "Discussions - Week 1". Your ideas on the speed of communication and pest identification are very useful and interesting. Cheers, Michael (FAO)
Submitted by Michael Riggs on Mon, 11/17/2008 - 05:27
Dear Mishra, you have raised some very critical questions, which we hope to address in this forum over the next 2 weeks. Please check the first discussion question which is now posted under the new thread "Discussions - Week 1" and share your thoughts with us there. Cheers, Michael (FAO)
Submitted by Brenda Zulu on Mon, 11/17/2008 - 10:47
My name is Brenda Zulu and i am a journalist based in Zambia based in Southern Africa. I have been to rural areas in Zambia and i found that the mobile phone telephone masts are not everywhere and so there is still no mobile communication in the rural areas. Mobile network communication is just along the line of rail. In Chief Chikata in Southern Province, villagers travel over 60 km to find a network connection. This shows that the rural area still need to be fully exploited for people to use mobile phones effectively. I was in Mporokoso a rural district in Northern province and the situation is the same. Refugees at Mwange refugee camp who have mobile phones always have to travel to the district to make a phone call. Otherwise where network is available farmers are using mobile phones to access market prices.
Submitted by Andy Dearden on Mon, 11/24/2008 - 13:42
I am Andy Dearden. I am a researcher at Sheffield Hallam University, UK and I am leading a project in Rural India using mobile camera phones to support advice giving in a farmer-owned crop producers company. We are using software specially developed for the mobile phones so that farmers can provide pictures & audio questions to the agricultural advisor who is paid for by the profits of their company. The advisor can see their photographs at a full size resolution by sending the photos from the phone to a website. My background is in designing interactive ICT systems.