Joyce Wendam
| Organization | Department of Agriculture |
|---|---|
| Organization type | Government/Bilateral Organization |
| Organization role |
Officer-In-Charge Regional executive Director
|
| Country | Philippines |
| Area of Expertise |
rural management, planning, budgeting, financial management
|
This member participated in the following Forums
Forum The Role of ICTs in Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (SCPI) of horticulture crop based system (mainly fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers)
From your understanding and experiences, what is the role of ICTs in sustainable intensification of horticulture crop based s
ICTs play an important role in agriuclture. ICTs are being used by farmers, enrrepreneurs, extension workers and other stakeholders to disseminate information on various innovation in agricultural technology. Most common ICTs being used by the majority are radio and TV. Majority of the farmers own a radio. Anytime they listen to the radio. Even if they are on the field working they listen to the radio most especially the School on the Air (SOA). If they are at home, they watch TV for latest news and updates. There are TV programs which focus on agriculture. Good paractices are being shown here with the hope that these will be replicated on the farmers' fields. Latest technologies, research breakthroughs, innovations and enhancements are also being shown to update our farmers and other stakeholders. Mobile phones are also common among the farmers in the Philippines. Mobile phones provide easy exchange of information among farmers and expedite communication among them. In fact, through use of mobile phones by dialing 8888, they could air their issues and concerns, ask questions anytime and there is immediate action or reply. The Rice Crop Manager (RCM) requires the use of mobile phones or internet by the farmers. Wth the use of mobile phones or internet, they could easily get information such as the correct amoount of fertilizers to be applied on their farms and other pertinent information. Internet enables rural communities stay up-to-date and to receive information on technology updates, market prices and other vital agricultural information. Internet can facilitate dialogue among communities and help to share information between the government planners, rural development agencies, researchers and technical experts.However, for those living in the remotest areas, the problem is connectivity. The radio is the popular channel of communication. Even if there is no power, they could still listen to the radio which is battery-operated. But there are some challenges to be addressed such as digital divide, capacity building due to lack of competence and expertise on ICTs by the farmers, inadequate communication and power infrastructure, limited financial resources allocated for ICTs, and others. For capacity building, I have seen in one of the rural communities in our province, a "Computer Education on the Wheels". The van equipped with computers and accessories is traveling from one place to another place teaching farmers and residents in the community computer skills. Indeed, ICTs are important tools in improving the productivity of the agriculture sector.
Forum Forum: "ICT and producer organizations" November, 2012
Question 4 (opens 20 Nov.)
ICT may marginalize smallholders in producer organizations owing to the fact that poor smallholders have no funds to invest in ICT, the PO has no funds to acquire ICT equipment, no access to ICT, lack of training of the smallholders, age, etc. Thus, producer organizations may not be able to tap ICT as a "formidable and effective development tool" that in some cases can allow "leapfrogging" (Steinmueller 2001 - the idea that countries and societies can jump over one or more generations of technology and that poor nations can thus move more rapidly to the modern information age (Sunden and Wicander 2003, p. 21). In the absence of supporting capacities and institutions, ICT may entrench inequality." - Joyce Wendam
http://ieg.worldbank.org/content/dam/ieg/ict/app
Our agency uses both the traditional media and the new media (quadmedia - radio, television, print, internet) to reach out to almost everyone especially those living in the far-flung areas. Last 2009, a Farmers' Contact Center was established to take charge of the information needs of the producer organizations and their members including the rural women. All they have to do is text/SMS their queries through the use of mobile phones and immediately they have a reply to their questions. The question may be about the appropriate fertilizer to be used, the amount of fertilizer to apply, and other agricultural information. Aside from text, voice call is also allowed. Or email through the internet. - Joyce Wendam
In our agency, a website was created known as the Agriculture and Fisheries Monitoring Information System (AFMIS) a few years ago. This website shares information on prices of basic agricultural commodities which will give the producer organizations, individual farmers, and the public, information on the prevailing prices in the markets of the agricultural commodities. So the farmers may decide whether to sell their produce or not, where to sell their products, where to obtain marketing assistance and other marketing information. On the other hand, the consumers may also be well informed of the prevailing prices. This promotes transparency. And with this information, they will be able to make sound decisions, resulting to their empowerment (producer organizations, members, and the local poor).
For their voices to be heard, those producers organizations with success stories are being featured in another DA website which is the "Matuwid na DAAN" (Department of Agriculture Accountability Network). The major purpose of this website is to promote transparency, accountability and participatory processes. With the success stories being featured, this may be emulated by other producer organizations and members for the improvement of their productivityprofitability. - Joyce Wendam
ICTs have been extensively used as a networking and advocacy tool. The goal to enhance interaction with and influence Government institutions and ICT provides a powerful tool to strengthen women's capacity to participate in civil society and the public sphere in general.
Women's groups that have been able to tap into the potential of ICTs have experienced benefits and increased opportunities to: conduct research and gain access to information; improve organizational and personal knowledge and skills; monitor and participate in global women's initiatives; disseminate information and publicize materials; lobby development causes at local and regional levels; exchange information and experience; coordinate activities both in-country and abroad; contribute to civil society and local communities; identify new contacts and development partners; and, apply for donor funding and other forms of technical support.
"In today's world, information means power". What does it mean for a woman to have a connection? According to Familiaras, "It empowers them." - Joyce Wendam
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/ict200
Tirazona, Lenny G. Empowering Women thru ICTs. Accessed at www.ncc.gov.ph/files/Isis.rtf.
I agree with you Peter. If there is no electricity, the appropriate method to be used is mentoring and using peers for education and dissemination of information. We are utilizing that in our agency. We are into face-to-face contacts, actual field visit, information caravan, cliniquing, developing members of producer organizations as local farmer technicians/farmer scientists to share their knowledge and best practices to their fellow farmers in their communities, and others. But as I have observed, majority of the people in the rural areas own a cell phone so they could also utilize their mobile phones in accessing information through the use of text messaging. Immediately, they may receive a reply to their queries through our facility, the Farmers Contact Center. This is in partnership with Smart, Talk & Text, Sun and Globe. But connectivity is sometimes a problem. Distributing IEC materials is also one way of educating our farmers and dissemination of information. We have this project called Barangay Agricultural Information Center (BAIC) established in the barangay itself in partnership with the Barangay LGU wherein IEC materials are being provided for use of the residents in the community. All these strategies are effective in educating and disseminating information to our farmers and other agriculture stakeholders. - Joyce wendam
Women are increasingly taking advantage of ICT in all spheres of life, thus confirming that ICT can be a tool to promote gender equality and enhance the economic, political and social empowerment of women. ICT is a powerful tool for advancing women's status, promoting gender equality, and enhancing women's economic, political and social empowerment.
Experiences throughout Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean illustrate ingenious and creative solutions to provide access to ICT, to use ICT as a tool for participation and most importantly to contribute to women's advancement and empowerment.
For example, the Multimedia Caravan project in Senegal exposed rural women to the benefits of ICT for development and provided the opportunity for women to develop their own ideas on how ICT can be used to further their development needs and goals.
In Kenya, women and men weavers were trained on using the Internet to learn new weaving techniques and develop more realistic prices for their products. In Uganda, the Uganda Media Women's Association established a radio programme - Mama FM- where women can actively participate and learn about development issues such as human rights, children, governance, nutrition, health, among others. In Poland, the Network of East West Women disseminates information to enhance women's participation in the EU accession process in EU candidate countries. - Joyce Wendam
Question 3 (opens 19 Nov.)
The numerous factors that influence IT adoption and use in agricultural organizations can be grouped into five categories: access to IT; demographic; IT training/education; trust; and, time (Kurtenbach and Thompson, 2000). It's clearly demonstrated that the complexity of farm, degree of external support, age, time, experiences, network, availability of information, personality and approach to learning enhanced or diminished a farmer's computer use (Iddings and Apps, 1990).
And also factors like lack of ICT proficiency, lack of ICT benefit awareness, too hard to use, lack of technological infrastructure, cost of technology, trust level in the ICT system, lack of training, system integration and software availability limit the use of ICT by farmers (Taragola and Galb, 2005). - Joyce Wendam
Jayathilake,H.A.C.K., Jayaweera, B.P.A., and Waidyasekera, E.C.S. ICT Adoption and Its Implications for Agriculture in Sri Lanka. Accessed at www.sljol.info/index.php/ JFA/article/download/1799/1511.
In a study conducted by Jayathilake, et. al., ICT uptake problems identified are as follows: cost of technology; lack of training; trust level in the ICT system; lack of ICT proficiency; and lack of technological infrastructure.
Adoption is not usually spontaneous, the technology has to be taught and learned - adopted to existing experiences and integrated into production. Batte et. al. (1990), and Warren et.al. (2000), clearly demonstrated that the adoption of ICT is strongly associated with the education level of the farmer and farm size and negative effect of age of the farmers. - Joyce Wendam
Despite the potential benefits of ICTs, farmer organizations are rarely the first to adopt them, given that they normally work in difficult environments with low margins to generate income for their members. To speed the uptake of ICTs it may be appropriate for public agencies to provide funds that can overcome the inertia typical of organizations struggling on a shoestring budget. Supporting a pilot project to demonstrate benefits can be effective. The challenge in most cases, however, is to sustain the use of ICTs after the period of support.
One way of looking at the sustainability issue is to support well-functioning farmer organizations as a public good that merits support from public funds, at least initially. Public funding is justified under the assumption that the public in large would benefit from "cheaper and better" agricultural products. Public-private partnerships are also important, as development in ICT comes largely from the private sector.
http://www.ictinagriculture.org/ictinag/sourceb
www.sljol.info/index.php/JFA/article/download/1799/1511
Jayathilake, H.A.C.K., Jayaweera, B.P.A. and Waidyasekera, E.C.S. ICT Adoption and Its Implications for Agriculture in Sri Lanka.