Simon WandilaSouthern Africa Telecentre Network / YPARDZambia
Lack of capacity of farmers and extension officers in the use of modern ways of communication and information dissemination (ICTs)
Lack of access to adequate ICT tools and services by farmers, extension enterprises and extension service officers
While National ICT policies have been developed and adopted in various countries, there is no
effective provision for ICTs in agriculture. Some countries in Southern Africa are implementing
ICT in agriculture projects, yet ministries in charge of agriculture do not have adopted ICT
strategies or ICT strategies are not integrated into national agriculture policies.
Zambia: With the growing demand for technical information generation and dissemination by
farmers, and rapid changes in technology, the ministry of agriculture has in recent years been
designing programmes meant to use ICTs in service delivery. Among the notable ones include
agricultural information centres, internet based question and answer SMS services, and
digitization. Mozambique: The Ministério da Agricultura (MINAG) as of April, 2005 did not have an ICT
strategy in place, although the interest to develop was there. The Centro de Documentação
Agrária e Informação do Sector Agrária (CDA) at MINAG is the department where web
development is being spearheaded. The production of quality content is a concern for CDA
management, as the creation of materials suitable for release on the web demands staff
capabilities that have yet to be developed. In fact, judging from the date of release of official
documents, release onto the website is slow. Between June 2004 and April 2005, the site was
not updated. (CTA, 2005)
Similar situations were discovered in Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana and Malawi where there are
no ICT strategies in the ministry of agriculture, and websites meant to provide agricultural
information are simple static sites. They are not frequently updated and therefore lack
usefulness. However, due to lack of a clearly defined and adopted ICT strategy in agriculture to
provide a framework for integration of ICT in the sector, various challenges have led to most of
these projects not achieving the desired results. Other challenges include lack of ICT skills among
extension and advisory services departments and lack of appropriate ICTs. For instance, there
are situations where senior members of staff do not have competent computer skills and are not
able to utilise the use of computers in the agricultural information centres pilot project.
3. The absence of effective Public Private Partnerships in linking ICTs to agricultural
development:
4. Lack of adequate frontline agricultural extension officers
Etant d’Haïti, en parlant d’obstacles, je dois parler d’un manque de volonté de la part des décideurs politiques, absence de lois cadre régissant le fonctionnement des médias communautaire, problèmes de l’énergie tant pour les agriculteurs et le fonctionnement des médias qui s’évoluent dans les zones rurales et manque de compétence et des équipements nécessaires au niveau de ces médias.
[Input from Noemi Stadler-Kaulich, Agroforestería dinámica en MOLLESNEJTA/Bolivia via email]
En las zonas rurales llega poco radio y TV, ambos tienen su clientela sobre todo en las ciudades, casi no hay programas para los productores familiares, además (casi) no hay internet; la idea sería que los municipios llegarían a las reuniones con videos educativos que informan sobre los temas de importancia.
While National ICT policies have been developed and adopted in various countries, there is no
effective provision for ICTs in agriculture. Some countries in Southern Africa are implementing
ICT in agriculture projects, yet ministries in charge of agriculture do not have adopted ICT
strategies or ICT strategies are not integrated into national agriculture policies.
Zambia: With the growing demand for technical information generation and dissemination by
farmers, and rapid changes in technology, the ministry of agriculture has in recent years been
designing programmes meant to use ICTs in service delivery. Among the notable ones include
agricultural information centres, internet based question and answer SMS services, and
digitization.
Mozambique: The Ministério da Agricultura (MINAG) as of April, 2005 did not have an ICT
strategy in place, although the interest to develop was there. The Centro de Documentação
Agrária e Informação do Sector Agrária (CDA) at MINAG is the department where web
development is being spearheaded. The production of quality content is a concern for CDA
management, as the creation of materials suitable for release on the web demands staff
capabilities that have yet to be developed. In fact, judging from the date of release of official
documents, release onto the website is slow. Between June 2004 and April 2005, the site was
not updated. (CTA, 2005)
Similar situations were discovered in Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana and Malawi where there are
no ICT strategies in the ministry of agriculture, and websites meant to provide agricultural
information are simple static sites. They are not frequently updated and therefore lack
usefulness. However, due to lack of a clearly defined and adopted ICT strategy in agriculture to
provide a framework for integration of ICT in the sector, various challenges have led to most of
these projects not achieving the desired results. Other challenges include lack of ICT skills among
extension and advisory services departments and lack of appropriate ICTs. For instance, there
are situations where senior members of staff do not have competent computer skills and are not
able to utilise the use of computers in the agricultural information centres pilot project.
3. The absence of effective Public Private Partnerships in linking ICTs to agricultural
development:
4. Lack of adequate frontline agricultural extension officers
More Details on this from this paper
[Input from Mr Isaac Cherestal via email]
Etant d’Haïti, en parlant d’obstacles, je dois parler d’un manque de volonté de la part des décideurs politiques, absence de lois cadre régissant le fonctionnement des médias communautaire, problèmes de l’énergie tant pour les agriculteurs et le fonctionnement des médias qui s’évoluent dans les zones rurales et manque de compétence et des équipements nécessaires au niveau de ces médias.
[Input from Noemi Stadler-Kaulich, Agroforestería dinámica en MOLLESNEJTA/Bolivia via email]
En las zonas rurales llega poco radio y TV, ambos tienen su clientela sobre todo en las ciudades, casi no hay programas para los productores familiares, además (casi) no hay internet; la idea sería que los municipios llegarían a las reuniones con videos educativos que informan sobre los temas de importancia.