E-Agriculture

Question 6 (opens 6 Mar.)

Makane Faye
Makane FayeEthiopia

Hi all,

It was an interesting discussion and hope all the important issues could be captured and senthesised. By way of key recommendations, I would like to suggest the following:

- e-agriculture readiness study (baseline study) - this needs to be the first step in the e-agri strategy formulation process where it enables us to benchmark the existing situation in the sector and set the goals and vision for the e-agri strategy. This covers a range of issues from infrastructure, content, access issues to consulting key stakeholders in terms of the visions of goals for the e-agri strategy. It also helps in looking at all the external factors including risks and assumptions.

- ensuring multistakeholder participation - as it was noted in the earlier discussion, the e-strategy development process need to involve all stakeholders and ensure their particpation during formulation including validation of the strategy and their role in the implementation; it would also be useful to make sensitisation both at grassroots and high-level policy making bodies.

- institutional framework - as it indicated from the experience of Philippines, the lead agency in terms of coordinating the implementation of the e-agri strategy is important which needs mobilising resources and building capacity to this effect.

Thanks all for the useful exchanges.

Best wishes

Abebe Chekol

Antoine Kantiza
Antoine KantizaPromotion de l'Education à Distance/Promotion of Education and Learning in Distance, PLEAD in short Burundi

I think that the implementation of e-agriculture strategy is more difficult to achieve than its formulation which also is more obvious than the evaluation, indeed the implementation of e-agriculture strategies implies the involvement of external stakeholders in bringing theirs funds, so Governments of ACP countries could convince more likely external stakeholders in supporting the investment needed for implementing a regional e-agriculture strategy which should break the loneliness of farmers disseminated throughout in those countries.
The map of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific show a varied agriculture landscape however the  formulation of e-agriculture strategy should be formulated in the same way such as :” to acquire the facilities of joining farmers in real time in order to push or to get vital information through their mobile phones for taking a rational decision making since the farmers are aware of those vital information: the new agriculture techniques, the agribusiness, the weather forecast and so on” or  in choosing a model like the Digital Green Project http://www.digitalgreen.org/,  because this model has shown its success of farmers’ production in India when in the same moment the food production fell in Sub-Saharan Africa and in many other ACP countries.
The ACP countries are disseminated all over the world, they do not have the same opportunities in the agriculture and livestock, nevertheless the countries which are linked on the same border share the same likelihood in agriculture and livestock, in this case, those countries could share the same formulation of a regional e-agriculture strategy for supporting their farmers to get in hurry some vital information for their input but also to sell their output coming from agriculture and livestock.
If the formulation of e-agriculture strategies have to be done by the policy makers and farmers of ACP countries, its implementation and coordination around ACP countries need the partnership of developing countries and other stakeholders because this kind of implementation need the basic ICT infrastructures and has its renewable cost for gathering agriculture information in a database or for the maintenance of the platform of e-agriculture for agribusiness.
The final goal of implementing an e-agriculture strategy is to boost agriculture and livestock in Africa Caribbean and Pacific where many countries are still living with never-ending hunger, and for this big challenge of feeding the populations of those countries as it is well expressed on the page web below http://mondediplo.com/2004/12/15fao, the ACP countries need  heavy investments  which should be funded by stakeholders motivated by working together in what I call a Marshall plan focused in enhancement of agriculture production in developing countries, in this case, the funding of the implementation of a regional e-agriculture strategy in ACP countries should be used to monitor the achievement of this Marshall plan in supporting farmers’ production in those developing countries.
The Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries have not only a different agriculture landscape but also they are not on the same level of ICT infrastructures, it means that the ACP countries of the same area could share a regional e-agriculture strategy for sustaining each other in progressing together and in fostering the farming activities and agribusiness in the same space.
In a real case, the optimal exploitation of a common ICT highway like the backbone of optic cables linking the countries of East African Community will reduce the digital divide in the favor of smallholder farmers of Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda even if these countries have not set up yet a common vision of e-agriculture policy, the ICT infrastructures are in progress, meaning that there is no linearity in making strategy, the first step should be the implementation of ICT infrastructures because the application of ICT devices could change any time and I guess that in the upcoming years, the mobile phones should be used in driving space engines transporting goods to or from farmers disseminated all over the world.

By Prof Antoine Kantiza, Master  UTICEF,-

mawaki chango
mawaki changoCôte d'Ivoire

Dear All,

As this two-week e-debate comes to end, I would like to thank you for you vibrant engagement and contributions, which has made the deiscussion facilitation the easiest part for me. So now comes the hardest... In the next few hours I will start culling your/our posts and replies to the six questions debated for reporting purposes in order to draft the debate report for CTA. From Lome, on this ninth day of March in the year 2013 at 18h18 UTC, please accept my abundant thanks and warm wishes. Have a great weekend with your loved ones, and all the best.

Mawaki 

Ken Lohento
Ken LohentoTechnical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA)Netherlands

Dear all

I would like to thank you all for your contributions which have been very enriching. Personnally, I'm taking from this discussion several things, notably, that (this is not a all summary of the discussion):

a) the existence of a strategic document on ICT in agriculture can help to bring coherence in the application on ICT in the sector, maximize the use of available resources on key priorities (Justin and others),  facilitate the learning process for all stakeholders that need to be involved, help to address access to ICT needs and priorities for key Ag stakeholders,  "help shape the formal legal development in connection to access, protection and utilization of ICTs in Agriculture at all industrial development levels" (Robert and others), the agricultural industry has become borderless (Brad), etc.

b) ICT strategy formulation can be long (case of Burkina), are not the panacea (documents are adopted sometimes but nothing happens), as described by Sylvestre; 

c) sub-sectoral e-agric strategies exist sometimes, focused on a specific domain (extension in particular, and we learned from the situation in the Philippines thanks to Emligot); market and extension have been two of the targets commented on by many in that perspective (Eugene, Aparajita, Zabedin, etc.) - I also note with pleasure the discussion about youth in agriculture by Anju, Moses and others :-) 

d) I also find interesting the discussion on stakeholders' role and the matrix suggested by Towela, Brad, Ben (who has now joined us at CTA as a colleague, congratulations again :-) and others.

In any case we need to be pragmatic, this is also what I learned.

The summary that Mawaki will produce will be shared with you so that you provide additional elements if needed. The "conclusions" of this discussion will then be presented at the ICT Observatory meeting that we are organizing in April in the Netherlands. We will keep you informed about that activity, notably by live tweeting it. We will also keep you informed about any future activities (at the WSIS Forum notably, etc.).

Thanks Mawaki for your very good facilitation. Thanks to UNECA, Minagri, EAFF, IICD and the other partners for sharing your experiences. And many many thanks to the e-agriculture team, Kristin, Andrea and in particular Michael for your strong support! Much appreciated.

I will add other resources people shared with me directly in the resource section http://www.e-agriculture.org/forumtopics/resources-0

Cheers

Ken Lohento, CTA

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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>My thanks to Mr Chango for his facilitation and guidance during this forum. It is a critical and often underappreciated function in all our productive discussions. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>We at FAO are committed to working with CTA to further our understanding of the important issues around e-agriculture strategies. We look forward to the ICT Observatory in April and the WSIS Forum in May.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>With regards to all,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Michael <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Michael Riggs<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Knowledge and Information Management Officer<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>e-Agriculture Team Leader<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Knowledge and Capacity for Development (OEKC)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>www.e-Agriculture.org | Twitter: mongkolroek | Skype: mongkolroek<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>

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Hoang Ngan Pham
Hoang Ngan PhamVietnet-ICTViet Nam

Decision 89/2013/QĐ-TTg dated on Jan 9, 2013 on approval for Society Learning Development Scheme for period 2012-2020. According to the project, 75% of rural people (almost are farmers) will be provided learning and training opportunities on science and technical knowledge for sustainable livelihood, which can meet targets through a package of solutions:

- Promote E-learning infrastructure and resources, including a professional television channel for farmer training
- Combine formal and informal education
- Strengthen community learning centers 

Looking forward to your contributions and the overall outcome from our deliberations. Thank you for the opportunity to participate. Should you need further assistance in any regard, feel free to contact me; or by email at [email protected]
 
 

mawaki chango
mawaki changoCôte d'Ivoire

Dear Mr Riggs and Ken,

You are much welcome. I enjoyed the facilitation for various reasons, not the least of which is the wealth of, as well as thirst for, knowledge among the disussants.

If any of you, all participants, wanted to get in touch with me for any reason, you are welcome to do so using my contact details below.

Warm regards,

Mawaki
-----
Dr. Mawaki Chango
Consultant
Research - Policy Advice - Project Management
Internet Governance, ICT4D & Identity Management
email: [email protected]
Cell phones:
+225 4448 7764 (Cote d'Ivoire)
+ 223 026 40 70 555 (Ghana)
+ 228 973 77779 (Togo)
Twitter: @chamawak