Question 1 (opens 22 September)

Welcome to everyone who will be joining us over the next two weeks to share  experiences, challenges, sollutions and insights on communication for development, community media and ICTs for family farming and rural development.

Welcome to our panel of subject matter experts, who will guide us through the discussion and also share their experiences with us.

My name is Alice and I will be facilitating this forum. You can reach me by private message, e-mail ([email protected]) or phone: +39 06 5705 4012.

If you have technical questions about the forum (how to log-in, how to post comments,...) please write us at [email protected] and we will help you!

With globalization taking center stage and technology being the order off the day, there is need for families to adapt the use of these tools in their farming activities. ICT can be implemented not only at the community level but also globally, so that information sharing is made easier. Members can share issues in regard to better seeds, fertilizer, products, opportunities, markets, and so on. The community can also get information quick from the agriculture control office and other institutions that are involved in farming activities.

Hello everyone! I am happy to join in this discussion and look forward to catching up with old friends and making new contacts.

ICT can support family farmers by linking people together, so that they can communicate more efficiently and/or faster. Initially this may be simply by making phone calls.

There is a recently released video (from SciDevNet) on how mobile phones are being used by farmers in Myanmar. It's a few minutes long and gives a good introduction to many different ways this ICT is being used. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bpP5jbOEzE

In addition to farming and "business" related activities, families may use ICT for entertaiment (note the women walking to market who use a phone for music while taking a break) or sharing information about other matters aside from farming. I think these are important issues to consider when we look at how ICT impacts family farmers ... because they are not just farmers.

Hello everyone. The CSIR has developed an entrepreneurship course for agri-learners at an agri school. All the material and templates are running on tablets. The school has a local server connected to the internet so that when learners update to it all the changes are uploaded to Dropbox. That ensures that the project team can see what is happening.

They started with learners in the hope that they will take their learning to their families and get their families to farm better. 

The course covers business models, production planning, marketing, finances and human resources.

Hi all, glad to be part of this! I may complement Michael's thoughts here. Communications and ICTs enable people to receive and share information useful for their farming activities and for managing their activities more effectively (data, contact, finance etc). This may thus contribute to making their activities more viable. But beyond this, these modern means facilitate better human (in)formal interaction, entertainment and information access for their personal fulfilment, which I see as a strong mean to make rural areas more enjoyable, to tackle the feeling of isolation and to fight against migration to urban areas. A big part of urban advantages reaches out rural areas thanks to ICTs. As an overall, ICTs and communications - to me - "kill" all the existing incentives to run away from Farming activities. What do you think?

I am finalising a study on the role of the media (print and broadcast) in communicating agric information and below were some of the observations:

~~The success of agricultural development programmes in developing countries largely depends on the nature and extent of use of mass media in the mobilization of people for development Radio and Television have been acclaimed to be the most effective media for diffusing the scientific knowledge to the masses as they transfer modern agricultural technology to farmers in different geographical regions of the country. Mass media methods in agricultural information dissemination generally, are useful in:
• reaching a wide audience at a very fast rate
• they are useful as sources of agricultural information to farmers and as well constitute methods of notifying farmers of new developments and emergencies
• the radio for example, is relatively inexpensive medium to produce for its audience, and therefore enjoys a wide range of diffusion even among rural and less literate people who have access to fewer information resources (community radios in particular, where members are involved in content development)
• the media faces challenges which include lack of subject specialists, language barriers as most of the material is not available in the local languages and has to be translated
 

Greetings to you all from Zambia. I am delighted to be part of this important forum. Most importantly I wish to express my gratitude to the organisers for allowing young people to contribute a voice to this important event. I look forward to grow my network and improve my knowledge and understanding of this subject.

Communication, Community Media and ICT  have the potential to generate relevant content required by family farmers to improve their farming activities and live a meaningful life, among other factors because of their locality and understanding with the community.

An example is the convergence of community radio and public access centre (Telecentres) to provide platforms for family farmers to participate in debate and voice on matters affecting them, as well as, to contribute to discussions on policy matters affecting family farming. An example of this model is a project by PANOS in which they integrated telecentres into community radio stations in Zambia. Read this article for details:

http://www.ypard.net/2011-november-3/convergence-radio-and-icts-agricul…

The use of telecentre ICT tools and equipment to generate relevant content to support family farming is revelaged and the content is disseminated through the community radio, and farmers use ICT tools such as radios and mobile phones to suggest content , evaluate content or simply participat in dicussions.

Hello Everyone. When I think of a family farmer taking information support from ICT tools, I would  look at her lifestyle, which is an important criteria to understand how ICT tools can suppport her. If the family is involved in vegetable production, chances are the women in the family is involved in few activities such as seed sowing, fertilizer application, sorting the harvest etc. Another important criteria is how much decision making freedom do they enjoy. If they do enjoy decision making freedom, female farmers look for information on quality seeds, access to finance, disease prevention of crops/livestock etc. All these agri- queries, as well as health related queries  can be provided through ICT tools. But more interesting question is, what would motivate a family farmer to use ICT tools to gather that information? Family members, neighbours, local experts are traditional sources of information for family farmers. A recently completed qualitative study revealed that farmers who have utilized ICT tools for information services - only did so  when their traditional sources fail to solve the problem at hand. My question to the forum would be, how would you integrate more of ICT usage  into the practice of a family farmer's information seeking habit?

Thank you Alice.

Dear colleagues, dear participants

There is a growing consensus on the important role that family farmers and small farmers in reducing rural poverty and ensure food security for all. Now, more than ever, communication, community media and ICT are promoters of social change in rural areas, providing access to timely information to improve agricultural production and encouraging the participation of farmers in the rural development process.

Here in Nicaragua we have not much experience of ICT in rural areas, even in these moments you are restoring rights to the less blessed people and through these projects are going to improve their living standards both economic, social and cultural

hi friends of the world , is nice to be part of this initiative of this forum, all the topics and experience of all is really precious,  we got less experience in Nicaragua about ICT and rural development , but we are in the beginning, is so important ICT  for the ensure food to the farmer and his family, is important the e-learning, for the e-agriculture, for the e-medicine, e-education and to protect the enviroment.

if we focus just in agriculture is good, people have to eat but dont forget of the Agroforestry is more complete, we have to prodcue  water, O2, catch CO2, natural medicine, protect soil for the agriculture, the policy in each contry have to change no just produce food.

in Nicaragua we trying to do comunitary forestry, the forest give an other products to survive .

the big explotion of telecomunication dont have to be just for fun the humankind need to change the paradigma of life, more friendly  with the enviroment, remember behind the ICT is a trace of pollution from weird (heavies) metal, that the reason why ICT have to be used for humanking and eviromental development

“Creating social change through media is not about the tools you use, the technologies, the perceived quality of the media produced. It’s about a real and deep understanding of needs: knowing what will work for your community.”  Professor Clemencia Rodiguez.

The first part, for me, is knowing the families you will be working with – their education level, their cultural obligations and customs, their income and the consistency of it, their skills and experience, their aspirations and the parts of their family – in Samoa it is common to have three generations on the same land. You have to know the infrastructure – electricity and telecommunications – so you can provide tech tools that can be supported easily. You also have to know the root problem of what you are trying to solve.

With specific reference to Women in Business Development Inc family farmers, we had a number of problems that we thought ICTs could solve. We were wasting time and fuel going to visit farmers who weren’t there, and locating a farm when you hadn’t been there before was difficult with no Google maps and no street signs. We also had no access to farmer files once we left the office. We were also blind to what the farmers were doing. We could not see when crops were being planted or harvested. We had just started a Farm to Table supply programme to hotels and restaurants and we needed to be in contact with farmers and our own field workers more.

The first thing we did is equip our staff with mobile phones and calling credit. The funding for this was via PACMAS (Australian Aid). The next thing we did was start designing a suite of mobile apps – the first one as a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) that could be updated from the field. Our initial tests looked fine but as we travelled to more remote areas, we saw that we needed the app to be offline and then synced when connected to the internet for it to work in Samoa. We are still at phase one and have yet to build the apps for the farmers and also the hotels but we are learning lessons along the way. The first is to keep it simple and focussed on the problem you are trying to solve. Otherwise, you end up with a flash product that has many features but still does not address the main problem. The other lesson is that although you may have to work with technical people, you need to keep in the driver’s seat. You know your family farmers and understand the cultural, economic and social landscape they are operating in – this is key to a successful ICT programme.                    

Hi all,

Greetings from Kenya 

The MDGS goals of eradicating poverty and hunger  through increasing agricultural production  to meet the needs of the rapidly growing population by either increasing crop yields in areas where there is farming can be achieved by changing the crops to suit the changing climate or changing the use of the land to more suitable activities in order to solve the problem of food shortages. The largest benefits will occur in lands which are underutilized but which have the potential for crop production or which currently have low crop yields. FAO estimates show that between 1995/7 and 2030 about 75 percent of the projected growth in crop production in Sub-Saharan Africa will come from intensification in the form of yield increases (62 percent) and higher cropping intensities (13 percent), with the remaining 25 percent coming from arable land expansion. According to a study on Agricultural extension services in Kenya,Remote areas and poor
producers especially those growing low-value crops with little marketable surplus are poorly served.(Tegemeo Working paper 26/2006). This means that  Arid lands(80% of Kenya) are not well covered in terms of access to information that could help optimize these areas for agricultural production or livestock rearing.ICT is the solution to getting information to the farmers in these areas. LandPKS(Land Potential Knowledge System) is a project funded by USDA-ARS which has developed an android based tool powered by a geospatial knowledge engine to enable farmers and rangeland managers to dynamically predict land potential. It is being piloted in Nothern Kenya and Namibia. LandPKS is still in the pilot phase but the android tool has proved easy to use even for the illiterate due to use of simple illustrations. 

communication

Communicate to farmers on available tools and their use. Get technology to the ground. 

Use of inbuilt demos on use of features and simple illustrations- cross cutting to all education levels

Ensure proper interpretation of tools and questions to ensure proper information is sent through tools to ensure correct predictiosn- GIGO(Garbage in Garbage out)

 community media 

Use existing community groups to test the tools and teach other farmers on their use and benefits.

 ICT tools

Downloadable tools which can be used with smart phones and sms based services can provide farmers with upto date information on climate, provide a platform to share knowledge (global connectivity) with other farmers to enable sharing of working practices(Local knowledge) and connect farmers to markets with best prices(reducing oppression by middlemen)

We are a social business using technology to open the channels of communication between smallholder farmers and other supply chain actors. Based on our experience in the food industry, we firmly believe that if the end buyers of products grown by smallholders know more about farmers, a stronger bridge will develop in the value chain, a deeper understanding of risk will be developed and more targeted investment in strengthening sustainable smallholder farming will emerge.

One of the ways that communication and technology can be used to empower farmers is to begin to use it to introduce brands and retailers to the farmers who grow the crops that feed the supply chain. Perhaps the most effective way to do this is by giving the farmers a voice that can be heard by the other supply chain actors. The solution we arrived at was to use a downloadable smart phone app to conduct very short and simple surveys among farmers in various farming communities in the Global South. The survey which we are currently testing in Peru has 13 questions around key life areas, specifically finance, health, education and general well-being.

From a business perspective, knowing who your suppliers are should be considered vital information, as these are the people who 'feed' your supply chain. And, through regular monitoring of smallholders the supply chain brands and retailers can get an early indications about the changing perspectives of farmers. With this win-win, maybe we can move toward more sustainable supply chains – something that we all need.

The challenge we currently face is the cost of conducting the surveys. The primary obstacle we face is the cost of surveying. We continue to look for better technological solutions to our communications challenge, but so far we are still employing an individual to go from farm to farm. In order to grow the concept we need to find a more cost-effective way to gather data.

Dear All,

Greetings from India.

I am Mobile Agriculture Specialist with 5 years of work in designing, developing and deploying mAgriculture service in India. The scenario is constantly changing and the need of information is following the same pattern. Just 5 years before we were busy in deploying Agriculture Information Service by using mobile phones.

Now is the time to form an Association of exisiting Climate Agriculture knowledge providers at state level and start collating local social knowledge. These knowledge then can be intergated by using various ICT model primarily mobile as its easiest and pro-poor communication medium. The role of Climate Smart Agricultural Content Providers, local Social Knowledge and Mobile Network Operator (MNOs) or a Mobile Agriculture Value Added Service (VAS) Provider is very important for sustainability and scalability of the service.

Thank you Alice.

The Dimitra community listeners’ clubs are groups of rural women, men, young women and young boys- mixed or not- that voluntarily come together to discuss their priorities, community problems and act together to find solutions. This happens in a participatory environment where everyone (both women and men) have the opportunity to make their voices heard. In this approach, ICTs are important instruments serving the initiative. The clubs are equipped with wind-up solar-powered radios and sometimes paired with mobile phones to facilitate communication among the clubs, community radios stations and communities. ICTs are certainly essential in this approach but participation, action and ownership are crucial elements. The clubs are agents of change, not only in agricultural matters but also in other social aspects (health issues such as sanitation or HIV/AIDS, girls’ early marriage, social cohension, gender equality and women's empowerment). As someone was saying before, ownership is fundamental if small farmers – women and men- are to adopt new practices, new ways of doing, new varieties.

I share with you a publication issued in French and English (most Dimitra knowledge sharing tools are in both languages) that summarizes the incredible experience and main characteristics of the approach http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/am604e/am604e.pdf I also invite you to read our latest Newsletter 25 http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/dimitra/pdf/dim_25_e.pdf which features articles on Dimitra and its partners and this special number contains also an interesting speech of a traditional chief who speaks about the impact of the community listeners’ clubs in his communities.

I just would like to focus on this again... ICTs, technological innovations, community media are great but they need to be used in a process where participatory approaches and the people themselves play the main role. In particular in a comdev perspective, they are not the aim but a powerful means to achieve development objectives, including empowering people, with a special accent on the most "vulnerable" sectors.

Hello everyone.
very true from my point of view what we share christiane dimitra, ICTs must be seen as a means not an end to achieve progress towards integrated development of personas.a the time these people take ownership of the technology.

Thank you for all your contributions so far. It would be nice to read about some experiences about the role of community media in supporting family farmers' activities alongside the "newer" technologies! And maybe we will also find out how the community media themselves benefit from ICTs...

It is very interesting to note and reflect on Christiane's point; "community media are great but they need to be used in a process where participatory approaches and the people themselves play the main role." Many youths easily adopt ICTs with less challenges, access more ICT tools such as mobile phones and radio, and frequent public access centres, as compared to other groups of population in communities. On the other hand, especially in rural areas where levels of literacy are low, the youth are usually adopters and intermediaries of a different range of information; they acquire, disseminate and help the rest of th community understand information. A simple level of education such as Junior Secondary, with just basic reading and writing skills in the local language and an initial level of understanding of the official language, qualifies the youth to be intermediaries in their communities.

When a participatory approach is in place in whatever model, requiring for instance the formation of learning groups/ clubs, the energetic and enthusiastic youths are usually in the fore front to pick up roles and actively participate in the activities of such groups. They are eager to lend their time and volunteer in their spirit to learn and seek leadership roles and experience. Care consideration and motivation coupled with an inclusive approach, even motivates the youth to participate more.

There are various factors behind the active role of the youth, such as identifying and understanding as well as strengthen their source of motivation. For instance, when the youth receive training to build their capacity in content generation, say, training a group of youths in video production at a telecentre so that they can work with the agriculture extension officers and other stakeholders in recording participatory groups in the community, the sense of empowerment, leadership and identity in the community, is in itself a motivating factor.

In addition to this, the generation of content which suits their style and generation, such as combining learning with entertainment increases the chances of the youth to adopt content and participate in its generation and improvement. Meanwhile, youths in communities do not work in isolation, they are part of bigger families and influencial when it comes to information intermediary. Therefore, as they consume information they share it with families to improve their farming activities and other cross cutting issues such as health. I recall these points I grasped from discussions with various young Volunteers at Sikwane and other Nteletsa Telecentres in Botswana, on 2011, how they got motivated to volunteer at community telecentres and in the generation of content, and whether their families supported this, and if so what benefit, their families expected to get from their children's involvement in community service.     

Hello everyone.

Lately, there has been increasing interest in empowering the poor through the provision of information technology and communication (ICT) inexpensive. This requires policies and regulatory frameworks for the poor to generate an environment conducive to the development of adequate and affordable ICT infrastructure in unserved areas; phased implementation of such initiatives to provide services accessible and affordable to the poor in general; sustainability of projects through adequate financing, ownership and commitment; the allocation of sufficient human resources to keep them; and providing relevant content, useful for the poor to improve their income and quality of life. This study provides an overview of the emerging opportunities and challenges that arise in implementing innovative technological options in community projects, particularly the poor, marginalized and underserved communities.

Equitable access is achieved rarely initiated by a single institution or ministry, nor can be considered the exclusive domain of utilities, or large private telecommunications operators - the effort required to reach markets unattractive (usually the most remote and poor areas) is too large in most cases, and the financial return is insufficient for traditional telecommunications service providers. This makes an approach on behalf of the poor in order to reach the most disadvantaged sectors of developing societies needed. You can find a more detailed needs of this type of approach in the module on policies and regulations of this analysis toolkit.

Implement projects for ICT access in poor and marginalized communities face several challenges involved: lack of access to ICT infrastructure; lack of energy sources to operate ICT equipment; lack of capacity and human resources to develop, install and maintain technologies; lack of access to financing for projects; lack of public awareness of the benefits of access to ICTs; through the local bureaucracy; and little political and regulatory enabling environment. In addition, gender inequalities are generally evident in ICT access, requiring specific interventions to address this problem.

ICT refers to a wide range of old, new and emerging technologies including radio, television, voice and data landline and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and lately, the rapid development of new technologies and emerging mobile telephony as well as a number of wireless technologies. The latest developments in ICT and the possibilities arising from the combination of technologies like Internet and mobile technology have jeopardized the traditional ("old") media, which resulted in a reduction in public consumption. This has led to said means happen to use mobile and internet applications to reach their audience, and allow the public to contribute by sending content, which increases the degree of interaction available to the public.

The choice of technologies can play a central role in defining what are appropriate ICT for the poor. In general, radio remains the most accessible of all technology and community radio have played a key role in the supply of locally relevant information to poor communities.

Rural women farmers are more inclined to actively participate in community media programs when they are involved and hence feel part of the programming or part of such intervention. Using a combination of both traditional and modern ICT tools combined with offline mediums example, face to face interactions and meetings, listening clubs and radio discussions at community levels etc. are crucial towards the success of community media delivering quality and authenticated information to rural women family farmers. The effective use of multi- dimensional information centers with access to farming/agricultural resources, ICTs, and extension advises for farmers are crucial in this aspect. Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) in partnership with Community Radios -  especially Radio Apac in Northern Uganda has a very long and sustained experience on how innovative modern and traditional ICT tools combined with offline mediums makes communication effective and beneficial to rural women farmers - with convergence of a multi-dimensional information center serving as a one stop center for ICT initiatives targeting rural family farmers.

Moses,

WOUGNET

Hi Everyone,

Great to follow the discussion and interesting issues raised and suggestions raised. While these are excellent contributions, I think the basic strategy should be be demand-driven and farmer-centred. Can these media mechanisms really help them solve their pressing, urgent problems? Which problems - perhaps those that can be solved with good production/processing practices and innovations, marketing and stable prices for their products, affordable and accessible financing, financial management, etc. Most of these families and members are poor, lack resources and know-how, hence providing practical solutions and options to them would go a long way in helping them to benefit in terms of their own objectives, priorities and opportunities. "The proof of the pudding" will definitley be in their "eating".  

Many thanks for the opportuinty to learn from the comments of others and also to offer my comment. .          

Dear Colleagues:

Thank you all for very interesting, informative contributions in this discussion.

At the outset, let me state clearly that I am a believer in the potential of ICTs to bring a technological revolution in farming and agriculture which can enable smallholder family farmers, the majority of farmers in today’s world, to benefit and also cope with challenges in agriculture and their livelihoods.

However, I would like to point out that while there is a lot of documentation and anecdotal information available on the potential use of ICTs to improve family farming based on pilot projects, as provided in this forum also, there is very little hard evidence on the impact and sustainability of these projects as also what has been the learning from almost 20 years of our experience in the use of the “new” ICTs such as computers and cellular telephony, for agricultural development.

Yes, cell phones have contributed to connecting people in rural areas. It is true that cell phones can enable farmers, fisher folk, pastoralists and honey producers etc. to enter and sell into markets. However, what is the tangible evidence that computers and “Smart” phones have impact on smallholder family farmers (outside some developed countries) to improve their farming and benefit from this improvement?

In fact, the evidence available today raises a lot to questions about what has been done so far and what could have been done till now to really exploit the potential of this technology for the smallholder family farmer? For example, the lack of useful content on most Institutional Internet based sources of developing countries adapted to be effectively used exploiting the full potential of these ICTs in local conditions including. 

Let us understand that there are a very many other ICTs beyond cellular telephony that are also impacting on farming and agriculture.  Some of these are listed here (http://www.egfar.org/news/icts-improving-family-farming). The central issue is how these ICTs can be used to benefit small holder farmers of economically developing countries who need very rapid development of their farming to survive and cope with a rapidly changing world?

Smallholder family farmers thirst for information, which they recognize is a critical resource in todays’ market oriented farming, to improve their farming and participate in markets. They need information about what, when, how and where to grow and how and where to market what they grow.  Each smallholder farmer has unique problems and each needs not only a solution but a basket of solutions with options that they can decide upon. Today’s ICTs have the potential, not available so far through any “old” ICT, to satisfy this need.

And yet, there are huge issues that have not even been discussed about the availability, access, timeliness, trustworthiness, affordability, relevance, usefulness and how smallholder farmers can make effective use of this information. In fact, the question could be, is the information that the smallholder farmer needs even available and accessible?  There is very little evidence of it. For example, market price information provided through cell phones is usually wholesale price at a distant market and not the farm gate price that the small holder farmer could get with her very small quantities of produce. Call centers to assist farmers offer immediate answers to a pest problem or a sowing date but not on how to optimize production for a reasonable income with resilience and sustainability for the farmer for her livelihood.

Neither have issues such availability, access and affordability of useful hardware, appropriate software, quality connectivity, useful farm advisory services, appropriate content and the necessary Institutional support, especially in research, innovation, extension and building of capacities in farmers to effectively use information needed for smallholder farmers been discussed in much depth and with evidence.  

And what about the possible impact on family farmers who are and could be excluded, on economic, social, gender, age and political grounds  from the effective use of these technologies?

I hope we, as leaders in thinking about ICT and family farming, can also consider some of these issues going beyond the brighter side of the potential use of ICTs in family farming in this discussion.   

Warm regards,

Ajit

Ajit Maru , GFAR Secretariat

Rural economic development has been a priority within IICD’s strategy since we were first established over 20 years ago. During the past five years only, almost 40 projects have been supported across Africa and Latin America as part of our overarching programme to promote socio-economic rural development through increased ICT access and use.

At IICD, we empower and capacitate Farmer Organisations and, via them, smallholder farmers, as well as other Value Chain actors, to effectively use ICT solutions. We facilitate the creation of multi-stakeholder partnerships, and act as a bridge between Value Chain stakeholders in order to enable them to jointly design and implement such ICT solutions which are the most relevant for their local context.  

IICD specifically supports stakeholders of the programmes focused on rural economic development via our integrated capacity building approach. For that, we work with our broad, well-established network of local implementing, as well as supporting partners such as ICT companies, IT service providers, IT consultants and software developers, training and capacity building institutions, M&E specialists, and others. This network has deep knowledge of national and international ICT developments and a proven track record of joint ‘ICT for Agriculture’ deployments. We also facilitate knowledge sharing and reflection on local implementation experiences for joint lobby & advocacy to policy makers and decision makers in the enabling environment.

Still far too often, capacity development within ICT4D interventions appears to be considered mainly on the individual level, but not on the level of organizational strengthening of the organisations that shape the direct context and support structures that these individuals rely on.

IICD’s conviction is that what is crucial is the ability of such local organizations to appropriate relevant ICT tools and integrate them in their work and service delivery. Such institutional development is generally only achieved when the focus is on social innovation - the business transformation supported by technology, and not on the technology itself. Though the types of use of ICTs in agriculture of course keep evolving, foundational capacity and intent are not shaped by the new technologies themselves.

From our experience, we strongly believe in the diversity of capacity building activities required for effective and sustainable ICT use over time, especially at the organizational level.

Capacity building needs to be clearly understood in broader terms and not only as training interventions, but also coaching and mentoring, knowledge sharing, relationship building and networking with local technical providers and resource persons, etc. It’s essential to realize that capacity to design, develop, implement and maintain ICT solutions requires guidance and support through the business transformation processes that take place when ICT tools are adopted for agricultural purposes.

IICD has almost 20 years of experience in introducing ICTs for agriculture in development context. This experience shows that the use of the range of recently emerging ICT solutions positively affects inclusion of smallholders in
the Agricultural Value Chains, providing that it is supported by thorough capacity building of all the stakeholders. Therefore, we suggest that any ICT4D implementation should be supported by integrated, widely understood approach to capacity building.

As food for thought, here is in details what IICD’s integrated capacity building approach - referred to as our Social Innovation Process - includes:

• Conducting an in-depth analysis of the local information and communication needs within the Value Chain and mapping the existing information and communication flows and channels;
• Enhancing Farmer Organisations’ and other Value Chain actors’ awareness of potential ICT -based solutions and their prospective added value;
• Supporting the Farmer Organisations and other Value Chain actors in defining and formulating the objectives of the implementation of ICT solutions, therefore gaining adequate understanding of the current state of the situation (e.g. in terms of available technologies) and business processes (e.g. how people do their work);
• Linking the Farmer Organisations and other Value Chain actors to the network of local (ICT) technical providers and ensuring their close and smooth collaboration;
• Training all stakeholders to acquire all relevant ICT and non-ICT related skills needed to successfully work with the ICT solutions. That includes, apart from building ICT capacities within Farmer Organisations, directly building digital and mobile literacy of smallholder farmers to capitalise on the introduced ICT solutions;
• Assisting the Farmer Organisations and other Value Chain actors in the design, development, implementation and maintenance of an ICT solution that is relevant and achievable in the local context of the Value Chain (technological and social dimensions) and will remain sustainable;
• Guiding the Farmer Organisations and other Value Chain actors through the business transformation and change management process needed to sustainably embed ICT solutions into organisational processes;
• Guiding the Farmer Organisations and other Value Chain actors in scaling up the ICT solution.

For more details, I suggest going to some of IICD's publications, e.g.:

- ICT Solutions for Inclusive Agricultural Value Chains

http://www.iicd.org/about/publications/ict-solutions-for-inclusive-agricultural-value-chains/

- IICD Approach: From Need to Sustainability

http://www.iicd.org/about/publications/the-iicd-approach-from-need-to-sustainability/

- ICT for rural economic development: five years of learning

http://www.iicd.org/about/publications/ict-for-rural-economic-development-five-years-of-learning/

L'information sur les prix d'achat des produits en début de campagne est donnée à travers la presse écrite, la télévision et la radio nationale. Les radios communautaires font plus le relais de l'information auprès des producteurs du fait c'est la langue locale ui est utilisée.

Les radios locale donnent les informations sur les sessions de formation, comment bien produire et toutes informations touchant le monde rural.

Nous proposons que les radios locales puissent être utiliséées par les structures d'encadrement en vue de faire passer les messages sur les techniques de production, les opérations post-récolte ainsi que la recherche de financement et la commercialisation.

Patrice Yapi N'CHO, Consultant indépendant,

Son variadas, dentro de los procesos de democratización, las comunicaciones juegan un papel importante para la agricultura familiar, ya que pueden proveer de información de manera agil y oportuna a diversas comunidades que sustentan su diario vivir en la agricultura. Un caso particular, es el acceso a precios de los productos en mercados de ventas cercanos; de igual manera el tema de bancarización para traslados de efectivo y/o pago de servicios; otra forma está relacionada con temas de seguridad, ya que permite comunicaciones entre vecinos y autoridades; además es necesario anotar todos los temas de planeación y de utilización de información gubernamental como el tema de lluvias, entre otras. Para nosotros como gremio, el tema de las TICs está enmarcado en el tema de planeación y desarrollo del territorio, ya que contando con sistemas robustos en los distritos de riego, se pude tener una series de informaciones que permita tomar decisiones en tiempo real, así como la disponibilidad de la misma y la proyección, para concertar mercados y mejorando canales de comercialización, distribución.