[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] Question 2 (8 Dec.) What positive impact can ICT have on the agricultural value chain? Where in the value chain can ICT reduce transaction costs? [/quote] ICT can assist farmers in meeting compliance requirements. We were visiting a supplier that's a co-op of farmers in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. They're growing rice that meet Global GAP standards. They showed us books of records of information by each of the 500 families, with entries after entries for compliance purpose. ICT could enable the recording as well as checking of that data to be a lot easier and less time-consuming.

Hello everyone My name is Thao Nguyen and I am a Newton International Postdoctoral Fellow working with Professor Tim Unwin at the ICT4D Collective, Royal Holloway University of London (http://www.ict4d.org.uk) on a new ICT-enabled business model that benefits women-owned microenterprises in poor communities. I'm currently working on the development of the model, with field work planned in Brazil, Kenya and Bangladesh and a pilot in Vietnam. I'm also a women entrepreneur who co-founded Star Anise Foods (http://staranisefoods.com), a San Francisco-based company that focuses on bringing high quality, all natural, sustainably grown food products from Vietnam to the international market. At the moment Star Anise Foods' focus is to market its products in the Northern California market. I'm looking forward to learning and sharing with you on this forum. Thao