This dialogue was posted on VERCON forum between some farmers from very distinct governorates in Egypt.

Farmer A: I have a mango orchard and noticed that there were a heavy fruiting in some trees. The strange thing is that, there were a "dead dog" in the middle of that spot. Is there any relations between the dog and this phenomena?

Farmer B: you know that bee do not like to cross match mangoes. The dead dog brought some flies, which caused the phenomena you noticed.

Farmer A: What do you suggest? How many dogs do I need to kill in my orchard?

Farmer C: you do not need any dogs, we used to ferment manure in piles spread in our orchard, this attract flies to do the bees job. so we have to birds with one stone. 

Virtual Extension and Research Communication Network (VERCON) was established in 2002 and an institution-based communication network in Egypt (www.vercon.sci.eg ).  The main feature to solve the problems of high technology, connection costs, and farmer illiteracy was to support extension centers with computers connected to the internet, while extension agents help farmers using the network components.

Number of extension centers connected to VERCON in July 2007 reached 96 centers in 18 governorates (out of 26 governorates in Egypt). Agricultural administrations in the governorates and its extension centers are connected to 30 specific research stations for field crops, horticulture and animal production working under 8 regional research stations, as will the connections with the central level like: the central administration for agricultural extension, central administration for research and experimental stations, economic sector, and all related research institutes.

VERCON includes:

• Systems to provide data: Agricultural economic database system that contains 11 databases for crops, area, production costs, farm prices, wholesale prices, net income, legislations and laws…

• Systems to provide information/knowledge: Bulletins review system with 231 full content and searchable extension bulletins, and Agricultural news system

• Systems  to provide expertise: Agricultural expert systems with 5 systems of wheat, rice, tomatoes, grapes and beans supported by related sub-systems for variety selection, tillage, irrigation, fertilization, diagnosis and treatment, harvesting. The other system is the Farmer problems tracking system that contains 11,360 detailed problems and its solution reported by 66,730 farmers uploaded till 1/7/2002.

• Systems to share ideas and experience: VERCON forum system

• Systems to track feedback: VERCON monitoring system

Percentages of users rated to: 76.1%  Male, 12.6% Female, 4.9% National and international organizations and 6.4% Undefined. Users professions were: 43.1% Researcher,  34% Extensionists (including those with direct contact with farmers), 9.4% Farmers (free directly connected), and 13.5% of other categories.      

Users affiliation were: 18.8% from Research institutions, 5% from the Central laboratory for agricultural expert systems, 4% Universities, 26.2% from Extension institutions, 0.8% other Governmental entities, 5% NGOs and private sector, 34.1% Individuals, 2.5% International institutions, and 3.5% Undefined.

 In 2005 the network was expanded to be Rural and Agricultural Development Communication Network (RADCON), and more systems were added: Women's corner System, Youth System, Clean Environment System, Market Information System, and NGO system (www.radcon.sci.eg ).

Both networks are functioning, but faced some difficulties that hindered their work like:

• The problem of ownership affected collaboration and partnership with other institutions.
• The problem of declining number of village extension agents due to retirement and promotion.
• Financial support for maintenance, phone and internet bills and incentives.
• Weak support of decision maker seeing ICT in low priority, and traditional caution to deal with private sector.

This innovation was very successful that it was replicated in other Asian ad African countries advocated by FAO (http://km.fao.org/vercon/).

More details about RADCON as a community-based communication can be found in "http://km.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/vercon/pdf/English/Radcon_-_web_v…"  (http://km.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/vercon/pdf/English/Radcon_-_web_version.pdf)

Hi dear colleagues

Here is a strong evidence that the mobile should be used to support AIS. These are the results of a study conducted in Egypt in 2010. 

Please note behind the results: the network used by farmers, the potentials of partnerships/relations that can be mediated, innovation players, types of information and media that can be used .. and more for your food for thoughts.

The study was conducted in seven extension centers allover the country in the governorates of: Ismaillia, Daquahlia, Kafr El-Shiekh, Fayoum, Assuit, Behira, and Nobaria Zone. These centers were selected randomly from the fifty centers connected to the Rural and Agriculture Development Communication Network (RADCON). All farmers visiting these centers during October and November 2009 and have a mobile phone (126 farmers) were personally interviewed using a pre-tested questionnaire. 

The main results of the study were as follows:

1. Percentage of farmers having high value mobiles with 6-8 specifications (40.6%) were close to those having low value mobiles with 1-3 specifications (46.9%).
2. The estimated value of farmers’ mobiles was not related to farmer's age, education, land holdings, or animal holdings, but was only correlated to the number of crops planted during the year, which means that farmers own a mobile for utilization and not to gain a status.
3. 87.3% of the respondents contact fertilizer dealers to know the prices, 80.2% contact their folks, relatives, and friends to solve an agricultural problem, 77.8% contact the extension worker for the same reason, and 77% and 75.4% contact seed and pesticide dealers to know the prices sequentially.
4. Solving agricultural problem represented 33.86% of respondents' usage of mobiles, knowing prices in general represented 28.2% of their usage, while knowing news, dates and places were 19.8%, 16.4%, and 7.67% sequentially.
5. Contacting folks, relatives, and friends for agricultural purposes rated to 46.97% call per month, meaning that one of each two of respondents’ calls were to exchange agricultural information or issue.
6. Cooperative contacts by farmers rated to 19.83 calls per month, and 16.3% calls to the extension agent, followed by fertilizer, pesticide and seeds dealers.
7. The source of 34.2% calls received by farmers were relatives, other farmers, friends, and folks, and 14.3% extensionists and agronomists, while 10.3% crop, animal, fertilizer and fodder dealers.
8. 20.6% of respondents’ calls were for exchanging news and advice, 9.5% to solve a problem and information exchange, 7.9% to announce meetings date, and 7.9% to purchase crops.
9. Farmers prefer to know the weather condition daily or seasonally, best practices or recommendations monthly or seasonally, diagnoses and treatment information weekly, monthly or seasonally, new varieties and selling places seasonally, irrigation advise and market prices monthly or seasonally.
10. Respondents equally preferred to ask for weather information and to be sending to them, while those who preferred to ask for other agricultural information were double the number of who preferred to receive it regularly.
11. Short Message (SMS) were highly preferred by farmers to receive information, followed by voice calls, and then images and video for diagnoses and treatment information.

PS. There are 3 mobile companies in Egypt. A SIM card can cost $ 0.16 to 0.48. A minute of voice call $ 0.0225. A mobile set from $ 10 to 500.

PPS. Taking advantage of this by extension service is ongoing.