The idea of providing support for farmers to document and articulate their knowledge and their issues is an area of great interest. Let me share WOUGNET experiences in this area. With the support of CTA, we have been able to provide the 12 women groups we work with in Apac District, Northern Uganda, a mobile phone and a radio cassette. The idea is to use these tools for interactive communication with the experts, either directly or via the Kubere Information Centre (KIC). In each of the groups, the women have received training on how to use and receive SMS. They have also received training on how to record their discussions/meetings on the radio cassette. The idea is that when they are having their group meetings, they tape these meetings and forward the tapes to the Kubere Information Centre. The staff at the centre then extract the questions and pose this questions to the experts. The experts are usually taped as they respond to the respective queries (unless it is a short quick answer), and these responses are played back to the group. Over the course of time, this process has enabled the experts identify the particular areas for which the farmers have need and/or those areas for which information already provided was perhaps not clearly understand or needs to be re-emphasised. The KIC also runs a weekly radio program, and again the questions/issues raised by the farmers are used to tailor the radio programs on a quarterly basis. These same questions and answers are also currently being integrated into the ARENET system that is supported by NAADS/NARO and FAO.

Hello everyone, My name is Dorothy Okello and I would like to share with you WOUGNET's experiences with agriculture information and communication systems. Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET)'s mission is to promote and support the use of ICTs among women and women organisations in Uganda. Our key program areas are Information Sharing and Networking, Technical Support, Gender and ICT Policy Advocacy, and Rural Access. The experiences I share below are from our Rural Access program area. To begin with, in 2005, a project on "Enhancing Access to Agricultural Information using ICTs (EAAI)" was initiated by WOUGNET with support from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP EU (CTA). The project is implemented in twelve parishes (villages) in Apac District, Northern Uganda, targeting grassroots women farmers as the main beneficiaries. Its main objective is to develop and improve information and communication systems so as to enable easy access to agricultural information for rural women farmers in Apac district. ICTs in use include community radio, radio cassettes, audio/video cassettes, CD-ROMs, and these are complemented by regular face-to-face meetings. The project staff also have access to the Internet. A rural multipurpose telecentre has also been established - Kubere Information Centre - to support information dissemination and project coordination activities. The main activities include the generation, collection, repackaging and dissemination of local agricultural content and content in the local language - Luo, building the capacity of rural women in the use of radio, radio cassettes, mobile phones and SMS, computers and the Internet. The internet remains something we are experimenting on in terms of how to get more out of this tool, in spite of the difficulties in connectivity. For one, we are revamping our website to make it more interactive compared to our current website www.wougnet.org and for the KIC at www.kic.wougnet.org. Also the KIC is a partner in the FAO ARENET project that seeks to use the internet to bring the gap between researchers, extension workers and the farmers. The KIC's primary role will be in submitting queries received from the field into the ARENET system and returning the responses to the farmers. Currently we have queries available in text and audio format but have recently received a digital camera from the ARENET project which should enable us capture pictures/images as well. Another project I should mention is the CELAC project, www.celac.or.ug, which is run by Busoga Open Source Development Initiatives (BROSDI) in Uganda. A variety of ICT tools (including web2.0 techniques) are used to interact with farmers and partners as appropriate. In particular, the Kubere Information Centre in Apac has greatly benefited by the SMS farming tips distributed by CELAC. Originally in English, the tips are now also available in Luo, which means that the women farmers supported by the KIC can receive the SMSes directly. Previously, the SMS messages were received by the KIC, translated, and then distributed to the women farmers. Some of the challenges faced by WOUGNET and the KIC include the typical of unreliable, if available, and costly infrastructure including access to power and to connectivity. However, again technology can come into help. Some of the areas we are looking at are community wireless networks to support communications and Frontline SMS to automate the reception and delivery of SMSes. We are also engaged in capacity building to enable the rural women farmers engage directly with the communication systems. To-date we do offer free computer training (with very low uptake I should add) as well as we have organised training in video production and in presenting on radio. Furthermore, based on our experiences working with both the District Agricultural Office and the civil society engaged in the Agricultural sector in Apac, we are now part of the Apac e-society Programme. This programme has been formulated as a joint effort between IICD, Hivos, local partners WOUGNET and I-Network and stakeholders from Apac, who include Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the district local and lower governments, and the private sector. The purpose of the e-society programme is to have an improved service delivery and community participation through Local Government, Private sector and Civil Society collaboration facilitated by the use of ICTs. This is a new project and one from which we expect to learn plenty in terms of innovative information and communication systems. I look forward to learning from the experiences of other participants and happy to answer questions based on our experiences. Regards, Dorothy