Question 2: What examples of ICT strategies targeting the agricultural sector do we have in ACP and in non-ACP countries (“ACP” stands for “Africa, Caribbean and Pacific”)?
Au Sénégal, depuis les premières années d'indépendance, la radio (Radio Educative Rurale) a été pendant longtemps le seul média utilisé par les services agricoles pour toucher les producteurs.
Vers la fin du dernier siècle, une entreprise utilisant le téléphone portable (MANOBI) pour le suivi des marchés agricoles voit le jour. Mais il faut convenir que son utilisation reste limitée car beaucoup de paysans ne pouvaient en disposer.
Aujourd'hui, avec la professionnalisation et l'instruction plus avancées de producteurs, le téléphone portable avec ou sans internet joue un rôle important car permettant une communication aisée.
Dans beaucoup de zones on trouve des producteurs (ou au moins leur organisation) équipés d'ordinateurs avec une connexion internet.
The patnership between malawi govt and Esoko through Agriculture Systems International to provide extension service to rural smallholder farmers through mobile phone agriculuture information service this should provide effeciency and quality of produce .
Did you get the sense that such partnership was part of a national strategy or was that an ad hoc sponsorship lent by the government to that private sector player? Why (if the former what are the strategic objectives being pursued)?
Thanks for the various contributions so far. Allow me please to formulate again the question at hand:
What examples of ICT strategies targeting the agricultural sector do we have in ACP and in non-ACP countries?
Maybe this question sounds a little general in that you may think you could reply with a list of relevant policy documents or countries where such policies have been formally adopted (which is not useless, so please do let us know which countries you know for certain such policies or strategies have been officially adopted.)
Short of that, you could also point out particular implementations or applications of ICTs in agriculture where public authorities were involved in some fashion, alongside other stakeholders, as long as their involvement signals a deliberate will to enable encourage or endorse the adoption of ICTs in the agricultural sector for some purposes (assumed or stated).
So please address the question at hand in your posts. Maybe it would help if you make it a routine to read the question every time you think of posting something that is not a follow-up to another post, before you post it. And if the problem is that you don't know of any specific case to rely on for your answer (such as, in this instance, exmples of national ICT strategies) you may, if you so desire, post a reflection or a commentary on the *object* of the question. In any case, we would like as much as possible your posts to speak, in non-ambiguous terms, to the question being addressed.
I have a sense I will no longer bug you down with this reminder because I am sure you will heed my advice on this going forward :)
Always, thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Benjamin Kwasi AddomThe Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)Netherlands
Hi All,
To add to Ken's message and also to be specific:
a) If you are a government policy maker - Ministry of Agriculture/ICT/Information/Communication, do you have any kind of NATIONAL electronic or cyber-strategy/plan/policy for integrating ICTs into the agricultural sector in your country?
b) If you are from the private sector - Value Added Service Provider (VAS) or Mobile Network Operator (MNO), are you aware of any any NATIONAL or government policy that guides your services within the ICT for Agricultural sector in the ACP country that you are operating?
c) If you are a farmer or consumer of e-Agriculture services, are you aware of any policies/strategies in place by your government to guide the usage of the new ICTs for the agricultural sector?
I will be glad to know more about these national e-policies/plans/strategies if they are in place (draft or complete) - link to the document, etc. It does not matter if you are from the countries already mentioned by the background report referenced by Ken, you can still tell us about your national case.
In Nigeria, the Agricultural Transformation Agenda calls for significant changes to both research & extension systems, and provides a road map to address the critical challenges of agricultural extension and advisory services in Nigeria - to transform it into a participatory, demand-responsive, market-oriented and ICT-driven service that will provide for the extension needs of the different actors along the targeted commodity value chains of interest. Integrating ICT-based services with traditional face-to-face extension is an important part of reforming extension services in the country.
Thanks Aparajita for your focused and relevant posts so far. While I'm afraid you'll tell me to go "google it," I still venture to ask if you could share a link to this Agenda. Are we already seeing any effect on the ground, at least in terms of those tranformations envisioned? Thanks
Anju MangalSecretariat of the Pacific CommunityFiji
In my last post, I mentioned that Fiji has a national ICT policy/strategy that targets agricultural sector. Other countries like Vanuatu, Tonga, PNG, Samoa etc have stated initiatives that target agricultural setor. However, it's not to the extent that we would want it to be. Therefore, government ministries responsible for the various sector should ensure that their activities are aligned to the national strategic plan and also ICT strategic plan. For example, Vanuatu believes that agriculture is a major part of their ICT strategy and vision: “An educated, healthy and wealthy Vanuatu” so wealth is mostly agriculture and trade. They are currently in the process of finalising their national ICT strategic document.
There are other strategies that target ICT, for example the Pacific Youth in Agriculture strategy encourages the active engagement of youth in agriculture across the region. The strategy outlines ICT as a tool to encourage youths in agriculture. Young people are looking for opportunities to access information and knowledge. Information and communication technologies (ICT) can help to facilitate access to knowledge and information and contribute to informed decision making. ICT can also put young people in different communities and in rural and urban areas in touch with each other
through radio, newspapers and, where available, television. Community radio, where young people contribute directly to the development of programmes, can foster an environment of sharing experiences and can help to build self-confi dence. Disseminating these broadcasts more widely could ensure that youth voices are heard not only within their own communities but also at local and national government levels.
And how is the youth responding? I'm not sure for how long those strategies have been set up, but is there already some evidence of positive response and impact?
Anju MangalSecretariat of the Pacific CommunityFiji
To date, the Land Resources Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community has been able to do a few ad hoc activities related to youth in agriculture. The Pacific Agriculture and Forestry Policy Network (PAFPNet) held a ‘PAFPNet Youth in Agriculture Essay Competition’. The contest was an initiative of PAFPNet to promote the ‘Pacific Youth in Agriculture Strategy’. The essay was also initiated to encourage young people to give their views about the challenges our Pacific Youths face when engaging in agricultural activities: http://www.spc.int/lrd/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=730:...
As a way to promote youth in agriculture, SPC-LRD established the facebook page called: Pacific Youth in agriculture" to promote youth doing agriculture and also to promote information sharing among stakeholders that can give their view about the challenges the Pacific youth are facing. It may not be much but it's a way to find out if youths are really interested in argciulture.
In 2012, through the support of CTA, a social media and web 2.0 training workshop was conducted for agriculture officers, livestock officers, forestry officers, young agriculture officers and young aspiring farmers in Fiji. The idea behind the social media training was to engage youths in the field of agriculture (e.g., young interns working in agriculture field, young farmers who are in export/import business, young officers working in the Ministry of agriculture).
One of the participants, 24-year-old agriculture graduate Elenoa Salele, has created a blog called Finding me in the agricultural world to share thoughts and experiences with other young people interested in initiatives related to agriculture. She also runs a Facebook page Youth and Agriculture - Sustainability and modernisation through ICT, as a way of sharing news articles and videos on agriculture. Andrew Weleilakeba, who attended the same social media and web 2.0 training session, is involved in a youth farming initiative in Fiji launched in 2012 in an effort to give productive openings to unemployed youths. Helped with gifts of seedlings, tools and transportation to get them started, the young farmers now have 15,000 taro plants, a fish pond, ginger and cassava plots, seven cows and two bullocks. Weleilakeba is planning to use Facebook or YouTube to sell vegetables, offering home deliveries as a way of increasing revenue.
SPC believes in promoting youth issues and as a way to encourage youths, we have interns working in the area of agriculture. One is currently working in the field of GIS and mapping sugar cane areas in Fiji, the other 2 interns are working in the area of livestock and animal health. We are training them in the use of ICTs as well such as using social media to engage other youths in discussions, using databases and websites to create an information hub.
Question 2: What examples of ICT strategies targeting the agricultural sector do we have in ACP and in non-ACP countries (“ACP” stands for “Africa, Caribbean and Pacific”)?
Au Sénégal, depuis les premières années d'indépendance, la radio (Radio Educative Rurale) a été pendant longtemps le seul média utilisé par les services agricoles pour toucher les producteurs.
Vers la fin du dernier siècle, une entreprise utilisant le téléphone portable (MANOBI) pour le suivi des marchés agricoles voit le jour. Mais il faut convenir que son utilisation reste limitée car beaucoup de paysans ne pouvaient en disposer.
Aujourd'hui, avec la professionnalisation et l'instruction plus avancées de producteurs, le téléphone portable avec ou sans internet joue un rôle important car permettant une communication aisée.
Dans beaucoup de zones on trouve des producteurs (ou au moins leur organisation) équipés d'ordinateurs avec une connexion internet.
The patnership between malawi govt and Esoko through Agriculture Systems International to provide extension service to rural smallholder farmers through mobile phone agriculuture information service this should provide effeciency and quality of produce .
Clement Simuja
Hi Clement,
Did you get the sense that such partnership was part of a national strategy or was that an ad hoc sponsorship lent by the government to that private sector player? Why (if the former what are the strategic objectives being pursued)?
mawaki
Thanks for the various contributions so far. Allow me please to formulate again the question at hand:
What examples of ICT strategies targeting the agricultural sector do we have in ACP and in non-ACP countries?
Maybe this question sounds a little general in that you may think you could reply with a list of relevant policy documents or countries where such policies have been formally adopted (which is not useless, so please do let us know which countries you know for certain such policies or strategies have been officially adopted.)
Short of that, you could also point out particular implementations or applications of ICTs in agriculture where public authorities were involved in some fashion, alongside other stakeholders, as long as their involvement signals a deliberate will to enable encourage or endorse the adoption of ICTs in the agricultural sector for some purposes (assumed or stated).
So please address the question at hand in your posts. Maybe it would help if you make it a routine to read the question every time you think of posting something that is not a follow-up to another post, before you post it. And if the problem is that you don't know of any specific case to rely on for your answer (such as, in this instance, exmples of national ICT strategies) you may, if you so desire, post a reflection or a commentary on the *object* of the question. In any case, we would like as much as possible your posts to speak, in non-ambiguous terms, to the question being addressed.
I have a sense I will no longer bug you down with this reminder because I am sure you will heed my advice on this going forward :)
Always, thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Mawaki
Hi All,
To add to Ken's message and also to be specific:
a) If you are a government policy maker - Ministry of Agriculture/ICT/Information/Communication, do you have any kind of NATIONAL electronic or cyber-strategy/plan/policy for integrating ICTs into the agricultural sector in your country?
b) If you are from the private sector - Value Added Service Provider (VAS) or Mobile Network Operator (MNO), are you aware of any any NATIONAL or government policy that guides your services within the ICT for Agricultural sector in the ACP country that you are operating?
c) If you are a farmer or consumer of e-Agriculture services, are you aware of any policies/strategies in place by your government to guide the usage of the new ICTs for the agricultural sector?
I will be glad to know more about these national e-policies/plans/strategies if they are in place (draft or complete) - link to the document, etc. It does not matter if you are from the countries already mentioned by the background report referenced by Ken, you can still tell us about your national case.
Ben
In Nigeria, the Agricultural Transformation Agenda calls for significant changes to both research & extension systems, and provides a road map to address the critical challenges of agricultural extension and advisory services in Nigeria - to transform it into a participatory, demand-responsive, market-oriented and ICT-driven service that will provide for the extension needs of the different actors along the targeted commodity value chains of interest. Integrating ICT-based services with traditional face-to-face extension is an important part of reforming extension services in the country.
Thanks Aparajita for your focused and relevant posts so far. While I'm afraid you'll tell me to go "google it," I still venture to ask if you could share a link to this Agenda. Are we already seeing any effect on the ground, at least in terms of those tranformations envisioned? Thanks
In my last post, I mentioned that Fiji has a national ICT policy/strategy that targets agricultural sector. Other countries like Vanuatu, Tonga, PNG, Samoa etc have stated initiatives that target agricultural setor. However, it's not to the extent that we would want it to be. Therefore, government ministries responsible for the various sector should ensure that their activities are aligned to the national strategic plan and also ICT strategic plan. For example, Vanuatu believes that agriculture is a major part of their ICT strategy and vision: “An educated, healthy and wealthy Vanuatu” so wealth is mostly agriculture and trade. They are currently in the process of finalising their national ICT strategic document.
There are other strategies that target ICT, for example the Pacific Youth in Agriculture strategy encourages the active engagement of youth in agriculture across the region. The strategy outlines ICT as a tool to encourage youths in agriculture. Young people are looking for opportunities to access information and knowledge. Information and communication technologies (ICT) can help to facilitate access to knowledge and information and contribute to informed decision making. ICT can also put young people in different communities and in rural and urban areas in touch with each other
through radio, newspapers and, where available, television. Community radio, where young people contribute directly to the development of programmes, can foster an environment of sharing experiences and can help to build self-confi dence. Disseminating these broadcasts more widely could ensure that youth voices are heard not only within their own communities but also at local and national government levels.
And how is the youth responding? I'm not sure for how long those strategies have been set up, but is there already some evidence of positive response and impact?
To date, the Land Resources Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community has been able to do a few ad hoc activities related to youth in agriculture. The Pacific Agriculture and Forestry Policy Network (PAFPNet) held a ‘PAFPNet Youth in Agriculture Essay Competition’. The contest was an initiative of PAFPNet to promote the ‘Pacific Youth in Agriculture Strategy’. The essay was also initiated to encourage young people to give their views about the challenges our Pacific Youths face when engaging in agricultural activities: http://www.spc.int/lrd/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=730:...
As a way to promote youth in agriculture, SPC-LRD established the facebook page called: Pacific Youth in agriculture" to promote youth doing agriculture and also to promote information sharing among stakeholders that can give their view about the challenges the Pacific youth are facing. It may not be much but it's a way to find out if youths are really interested in argciulture.
In 2012, through the support of CTA, a social media and web 2.0 training workshop was conducted for agriculture officers, livestock officers, forestry officers, young agriculture officers and young aspiring farmers in Fiji. The idea behind the social media training was to engage youths in the field of agriculture (e.g., young interns working in agriculture field, young farmers who are in export/import business, young officers working in the Ministry of agriculture).
One of the participants, 24-year-old agriculture graduate Elenoa Salele, has created a blog called Finding me in the agricultural world to share thoughts and experiences with other young people interested in initiatives related to agriculture. She also runs a Facebook page Youth and Agriculture - Sustainability and modernisation through ICT, as a way of sharing news articles and videos on agriculture. Andrew Weleilakeba, who attended the same social media and web 2.0 training session, is involved in a youth farming initiative in Fiji launched in 2012 in an effort to give productive openings to unemployed youths. Helped with gifts of seedlings, tools and transportation to get them started, the young farmers now have 15,000 taro plants, a fish pond, ginger and cassava plots, seven cows and two bullocks. Weleilakeba is planning to use Facebook or YouTube to sell vegetables, offering home deliveries as a way of increasing revenue.
SPC believes in promoting youth issues and as a way to encourage youths, we have interns working in the area of agriculture. One is currently working in the field of GIS and mapping sugar cane areas in Fiji, the other 2 interns are working in the area of livestock and animal health. We are training them in the use of ICTs as well such as using social media to engage other youths in discussions, using databases and websites to create an information hub.