In Bangladesh, we have 6 telecom operators who are very aggresive for client requisition. Low tariff , and recently improved network coverage are enabling agents for faremrs' access to technology through mobile. What catalysed it further is the availability of economic mobile handsets. So in current situation, around 84% of rural farmers have mobile phones in my country. But the use of mobile is in very elementary level, such as giving missed calls, making/receiving calls. Advanced use of services such as MMS/internet/value added service related to agriculture through mobile is very limited. Challenges that we face include low awareness of such advanced services, lack of know how of how to use them, tech averseness, and  price of these services. Promotional campaign is now designed based on the lifecycle of the service launched. When a new service is launched, mass level promotional campaigns are conducted to create awareness. In the second stage, we concentrate on communication in smaller,  targetted audience  in clusters with demonstration effect. During these sessions, we focus heavily on content that is being delivered (service benefits properly defined, has to relate to the farmer's lifestyle)  and also on activities that can reduce tech averseness of these farmers.

Dear All

Please share your experiences in making information  a transacted/paid service

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?

Dear All

Agriculture information need is dynamic and ICT fits the glove by being both flexible and dynamic in nature. In Katalyst, we work with ICT channels to provide access to accurate information to farmers in a timely manner. The monitoring process of our work starts from the very beginning and is carried out from time to time, which enables us to enjoy a number of positive benefits. We are in line with the monitoring and result measurement (MRM) team from the start which helps us to look at our initiatives from a MRM perspective. In addition regular monitoring helps us to respond to any changes in the service provider's and beneficiaries' environment. The benefits of regular monitoring is further reflected when ex post facto studies are carried out.

A similar situation was skecthed when e- krishok was scaled in 100 location in 2009. E- krishok was a promotional campaign targeting the rural farmers, aimed at increasing the farmer's footfall in Grameenphone Community Information Centre (GPCIC) A close monitoring was caried out both by MRM and ICT team.  In 2011, an impact analysis study was carried out where we captured the impact of our interventions on  e-krishok members.

Thus depending on type of intervention, a combination of regular monitoring and ex post facto studies has the potential to give rise to a substantial impact in the target group.