Hi Marie, one example is the case reported by Huyer and Carr (2002) on Radio for Development in Zimbabwe (recognizing the radio as an important aspect of information technology) records village meetings among women who discuss local issues and concerns. These meetings are broadcast on the national radio broadcaster, and have increased women's influence on local and national policy considerably (Source : http://gtd.sagepub.com/content/6/1/85.full.pdf+html).

Another example is the Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL) which is a multistakeholder operation, consists of academia, industry, government and marginalized communities to facilitate user-driven innovation in the ICTD domain. This not only empowers the rural communities but also integrates the innovative potential in the rural marginalized areas within the general national system of innovation. SLL exists as collaboration between public-private-civic partnerships to co-create innovative solutions for development; an understanding of the targeted rural community was essential to set a foundation for building on existing living lab activities, and a new Village Connection project aimed at offering affordable mobile phone services in rural contexts

Project Overview

Rhodes and Fort Hare Universities have been active in ICT for Development for many years, through the two Telkom Centres of Excellence in Telecommunication hosted in their Computer Science departments (www.coe.ru.ac.za; www.coe.ufh.ac.za). In 2006, this activity has given rise to a field test site, in the Mbashe municipality in the vicinity of the Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve, in the rural Eastern Cape Province. This initiative, now called the Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL) is organised along the lines of the emerging RDI living lab methodology whose main underlying principle is co-creation of solutions with empowered users. SLL shows in a practical fashion how marginalised rural communities that are difficult to reach, may in future be joined with the greater South African and African communities to the economic, social and cultural benefit of all.

Sources: DOI: 10.1177/0266666910385374

               http://siyakhulall.org

True, apart from access that can offer women opportunities for increased participation in productions/productivity/microenterprises, there is a need to educate and train women in science and technology. The lack of training due to cost or expense, distance from home, time and cultural inhibitions is one of the impediments to women's use of technologies. Through the organizations we have identified here, I hope more support initiatives and ICT activities will be made available and more innovative methods of reaching especially grassroots women producers.

Yes Sister., end-users/farmers/individuals relate better to content they can understand; studies report that the local language is always being preferred for the obvious reason that it gives them the capacity to assess, apply and act upon the information provided. That's one feature of one of the ICT projects in Indian agriculture in the case study of Glendenning and Ficarelli (2011)- aAqua (almost All questions answered) with textual content stored in a language independent fashion which enables users to assess, apply, and apply and use content/knowledge/information because it can be accessed in their preferred language.

Hi Ravishankar,

I read from the Journal of Information Development that IKSL has recently started building a database infrastructure for the helpline and the source material for the delivery of the five voice messages per day, however, these databases are closed to public access. Too, IKSL farmers reported that the voices messages are preferred to regular SMS because of literacy concerns.

This raises the issues of developing the capacity of farmers in using this ICT platform and the access to digital repositories of public agricultural information, like the case of IKSL disseminating agricultural information to farmers for a fee.

-Arnel

This is one of the key points that came out in the GFAR-supported discussion (Global Forum on Agricultural Research) of information and communication specialists working in agriculture (www.dgroups.org/groups/inars) in exploring different dimensions and exchanging ideas and experiences on KM and sharing in agriculture- the recognition of the importance of telecenters in mediating communication between rural communities and information providers. For instance, India is exploring rural telecenters that offer a wide range of services from both the government and the private sector. The utilization of ICT is the growth area in improving agricultural markets, marketing systems, and commodity exchanges. Particular information being made available to farmers, for instance, empowers them to take better decisions and earn better returns on their produce. (Information Development, DOI: 10.1177/0266666909351634)

 AppLab (initiative of the Grameen Foundation) which was developed in Ghana using ethnographic research, needs assessment research, and rapid prototyping methods is another series of mobile phone applications and services that allow people to access information on agriculture and other topics. (Source: IFLA DOI: 10.1177/0340035210378838)

Hi Sansu and Kelly, I agree, totally. Training and involving these farmers will certainly make a difference. Taking the farmers involvement in the process of research, for instance, emphasizes the importance that knowledge needs to be sourced from different actors with different perspectives (diverse set of actors)- the relations among the actors (network of actors involved in a specific activity) are the key to knowledge sharing and application. This is a major change from rather linear paradigms of knowledge creation and use, according to Ballantyne (2009), that saw research institutes as the creators of knowledge and technology, extension as the diffusers of advice, and farmers as the adopters of new practices, and where the different knowledge and information systems were often quite separate.

Taking PROLINNOVA (PROmoting Local INNOVAtion) as an example, a project of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), emphasis is on participatory innovation development with farmers encouraging 'farmer-led experimentation' and the integration of farming communities into innovation systems promoting kowledge sharing among farmers and other innovation actors, encouraging farmers to compare and share their experiences and to more critically experiment.

Source: DOI:10.1177/0266666909351634