. Hi All Looks like I am the first to register on the forum! I am Sameera Wijerathna, Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) Activist in Sri Lanka. Hoping to learn and share knowledge with you all. Cheers Sameera. ICT4D in Sri Lanka .

Hi All "Poor farmers are not a problem; they are the solution" - Bill Gates There will be numerous challenges and those would be more challenging as well. We have to "Do more with less resource". So we definitely need a catalyst such as ICT. We need governments to make right policies to help the development of agriculture sector and make room for sustainable private sector involvements. If the private sector gets involved, they will bring the expertise and efficiency to the whole system to make the agricultural value-chain efficient and sustainable. Anyway governments will play a watch dog's role to ensure win-win solutions for the private sector as well as for poor farmers. -Sameera.

[quote="ravishankar"] 6.ICT is the way to reach the remote farmers - to a certain extent in using the mobile technology, others yet to find ground [/quote] A recent research conducted by LIRNEasia on Teleuse at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) users, in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, and Thailand showed that; More house holds had access to a telephone (mobile of fixed) than a radio. [except Sri Lanka and Philippines]. This shows mobile phones or other fixed phones such as CDMA phones becoming a very good medium to reach the remote farmers. -Sameera.

Hi All It looks like the attachment (picture) is not accessible in the above post, though I have uploaded it. You can access the same figure (The impact of direct access to telecom on the ability to earn or save) at following; http://ict4d-in-srilanka.blogspot.com/2009/10/stop-positioning-mobile-for-as-mere.html -Sameera.

Hi All A research organization in Sri Lanka, LIRNEasia, conducted a regional survey in South Asia to understand how Bottom of Pyramid (BoP) segment interact with ICT in 2007. All the respondents were asked the question "Does direct access to a telephone help you to earn or save?" Following options were given to answer; 1. Worsened 2. Slightly worsened 3. No change 4. Somewhat improved 5. Improved The mean response for Sri Lanka was as low as 3.19 and out of the all Sri Lankan respondents 25% believed that direct assess to a phone has worsened their ability to earn and save. This is what majority in the Bottom of Pyramid (which includes the poor rural farmers) believe. So if we just dump the technology simply because of we believe that it help to solve their problems, it is not going to work as long as they do not believe it. See the attached picture for more info. -Sameera

[quote="Louise"] Great point Sameera! But how can we encourage people to openly share [/quote] Hi Louise/Others Let me to give you a quick answer; Independent researches would be an ideal solution. I will share more information with you later. -Sameera

Hi All Michael - do not insult Lisa :lol: Good practices/models/case studies It is always good to share the learning with others. Good practices, effective working models, successful case studies. But, it is more important to share the failures, ineffective models, unsuccessful case studies as well, because repetition of those mistakes is extremely costly and will not help us to achieve the development objectives. Most of the initiatives try to hide the negative aspects and sometime exaggerate about success just to please the governments, funding organizations, etc. So we need more and more independent reviews and also platforms such as e-agriculture to share that knowledge with other stakeholders. -Sameera

Hi Michael Going beyond the production, harvesting, etc. … Forward Sales Agreements This is the process we need a third (or more) party involvement, Buyer, Farmer and a Bank. Sometime we may require an insurance company as well. So this is another process which can be facilitated /catalyzed by the involvement of ICT. -Sameera.

Hi All I think all of you remember the ICT (mainly telecommunication) market liberalization during late 1980s and 1990s in most of the developing countries. If that didn't happen most of the modern technologies we are talking about may not be Available for most of the rural farmers whom we are talking about now. Most of the private sector investment has helped to connect the unconnected rural people in developing countries. -Sameera.

Hi All Thank you Worlali raising the concerns on Cost and Partnerships Downside COST We do not have big issue of cost when large companies are having automated farm management system, information management systems, etc. as the relative costs of ownership of ICT as well as usage cost are not that high. But when a poor farmer tries to get access to ICT, the relative costs of ownership as well as usage are very high. Against the downsides What can we do; Public Private Partnerships - governments can facilitate the private sector involvement encourage for innovations and investments Innovation - Cheaper tools - cost of ownership of a mobile phone has come down to as law as 10 USD. - Cheaper technologies - SMS will roughly cost you 0.01USD - Cheaper technologies - USSD (session based) access is free in some countries -Sameera.