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Agriculture, Food Security & Rural Development, Areas of Expertise, Information and Communication Technology for Development, Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Can this be an Opportunity for Mobile Banking in Ethiopia?

Photo Credit: The Economist

I participated in a very informative event this week in Washington DC where a researcher was sharing his experience on “Weather-Index based Crop Insurance for Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia”. As I listened to the discussion as an agricultural information specialist, my concern was what is the role of mobile technologies in this?

According to the researcher, Dr. Shukri Ahmed a Senior Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the concept of crop insurance has a long history from Asia with the leadership of India. However, due to the challenges associated with insurance in general and access to credit to smallholder farmers, the idea somehow waned. But according to Index Insurance Innovation Initiative (I4), there is overwhelming evidence that uninsured risk can drive people into poverty and destitution, especially those in low-wealth agricultural and pastoralist households. There is therefore a re-emergence of insurance for smallholder farmers across the globe.

The speaker gave a detailed background to the study in Ethiopia and the importance of partnership in the design and implementation of the study. The difference, however, with this new approach to crop insurance for smallholder farmers is the use of index (indices) to support the insurance service, and intervention against emergency situation. But at the same time the study is targeting farmers that are relatively better off and who are already engaged in the market but are not investing in insurance due to the anticipated risks. The outcome of the pilot study is expected to help protect the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, who are vulnerable to severe and catastrophic weather risks particularly drought, enhance their access to agricultural inputs, and enable the development of ex-ante market based risk management mechanism which can be scalable in Ethiopia.

Dr. Shukri Ahmed, Senior Economist at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Unbanked or Branchless Services

Adding another concept to an already very complex issue that tries to combine weather, insurance, credit/finance, and smallholder farming, should be carefully considered. But the key question is whether mobile technologies can play a catalytic role in this entire complex system?

Among the reasons for choosing a given area for the pilot study, include availability of Nyala Bank branches, the vulnerability of yields to drought, the availability of nearby weather stations, and the willingness of cooperatives in the area to purchase the new product. As the pilot study progresses, the possibility of scaling the project across the country is high. But what will be the implications for the absence of banks in the rural farming communities in a country that has an approximately one bank loan per 1000 adults? Can Mobile Banking help understand why smallholder farmers under-investment in agriculture?

A success story of mobile banking by the Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) in Bangladesh was recently highlighted by the GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked. Interestingly, the story pointed out how DBBL learnt from Kenya’s famous mobile money program M-PESA. Kilimo Salama (KS) is an innovative index-based insurance product that insures farmers’ inputs (seeds, fertilizer, pesticides), and outputs (crop harvests), in the event of drought or excessive rainfall. It uses weather stations to collect data and implements SMS-based mobile technologies to administer and distribute the payouts. Mobile technologies will not only help with the financial transactions such as seen in Kilimo Salama’s case but also in support of the weather stations for timely and accurate decision making for pay-outs.

My conversation with Dr Shukri about the possibility of integrating mobile money into the project to address the challenge of absence of banks in rural Ethiopia, revealed the huge untapped market for Mobile Banking in that country. However, the success of such services depends on a convincing business case for both the banks and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). Most importantly, however, is the state of telecommunication infrastructure and regulation in the country. These need to be in place for services and applications to thrive. With this huge investment

Outside Ethiopia, I believe it is time for African countries to take advantage of the increasing mobile phone penetrations in the continent beyond social networking to general development applications such as for agriculture, health, education, and rural development.

To listen to the audio recording of the event, visit Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

August 25, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

From ICT4Ed to ICT4Ag: The Potential of EasySMS Mobile App!

Photo Credit: EasySMS

EasySMS mobile app intends to enable illiterate people to “read” SMS on Windows Phone 7; understand the meaning of each word of the SMS; and write SMS using icons with sound support and SMS recomposition from previous SMSs.

It is a Windows phone application which empowers illiterate people to read, compose, send text messages to their contacts, and helps managing contacts in an innovative and funny way through text-to-speech solutions.

The design and development of the app is based on the premise that about 800 million illiterate people are excluded from the benefits of text messaging and most of them reside in rural areas in which mobile phone coverage and ownership is growing rapidly and SMS are cheap or even free. Using a touch screen with simple icons, illiterate users may be able to use their mobile device to navigate through text messages, highlight words from incoming messages, listen to them, and then add them to new messages.

Considering the huge current market size of the users of the application, the developers are very ambitious, optimistic, and believe that their work will lead to the creation of more tools to help illiterate people gain access to information and technology.

Below is the preview of the app:

Illiteracy and Smallholder Farming

A major challenge, I believe, facing the ICTs for Agricultural Development Sector in most developing nations is the high illiteracy levels among the smallholder farmers. As a result, the success of this app will be a success to the ICT4Ag community. It is a laudable initiative which is still at the teething stage and needs a lot of support for improvement.

Several discussions, forums, and debates have been taking place over the years to find alternative models to delivering agricultural information to farmers in the developing nations who cannot read or write. At the same time, with the unprecedented growth of mobile phone among these same group of people, it is a great move to take advantage of the technology. The dominant mode at the moment seems to be SMS or text messaging with its two main limitations – the illiteracy barrier and the amount of information that can be transmitted at a time. EasySMS may be able to reduce the former while the latter still stands.

Designing for Today or Tomorrow?

But my question (as derived from the title of this blog) is – what is our priority? To sustainably address the illiteracy problem by educating our rural folks now, so that they can easily access agricultural information tomorrow or to continue investing in applications that help address the challenge of today’s illiterate farmer in accessing the right information? In other words, how can we modify our ICT4Education programs for long term solutions to the illiteracy problem in the rural farming communities in order to impact ICT4Agriculture programs?

I believe it is time for the ICT4Ed and ICT4Ag communities to begin sharing notes. In order for ICT4Ag applications and projects to have tangible impact on the rural farmers, they must get the basic education necessary to use these apps. While the EasySMS app takes an interesting approach that could eventually create a new breed of “literate” rural folks through the use of these visuals (computer icons) and voice support, we should not forget to catch the future literate farmers while they are young. In doing so, we will be on the path of tackling the information barrier through both short term and long term approaches.

April 23, 2012/by actualize

Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Water

Free and Handy Water Quality App Debuts in South Africa

SciDev.Net reports the success of a mobile phone application that can be used by low-cost feature phones to monitor local water quality via SMS. The Water Quality Reporter (WQR) can be used to check microbiological contamination, and carry out residual chlorine and hydrogen sulphide tests.

The application was developed using open source programming and iCOMMS software, iCOMMS is part of the University of Cape Town. This team has also developed mechanisms for integrating water quality results into existing information systems.

iCOMMS wishes to expand the application, which is available for download at their site, into the greater network of water treatment processes.

April 10, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Another App for Smallholder Farmers: M-Farm

Photo Credit: M-Farm

M-Farm is an award winning mobile solution for agribusinesses and farmers currently being piloted in Kenya. It is an SMS and web-based application focused on improving weaknesses in the value chain. It is a transparency tool for Kenyan farmers to get information pertaining to the retail price of their products, buy their farm inputs directly from manufacturers at favorable prices, and find buyers for their produce.

Why M-Farm?

The M-Farm solution was developed based on the marketing challenges of rural farmers in Kenya. Smallholder farmers unaware of the market of the various commodities, produce in excess and are faced with the problem of getting the worth of their produce. Poor information on farm inputs and lack of access to these inputs such as fertilizer, seed, agrochemicals and other equipments are huge obstacles to increasing farmers’ productivity. The inability of the farmers to transport their produce to regional markets after harvesting also leads to the exploitation by middlemen who offer meager prices for the produce, and even delay payments for the commodities.

M-Farmers’ Approach

The M-Farm solution aims at giving farmers a voice by connecting them with each other in a virtual space for access to affordable farm inputs and also be able to sell their produce collectively. Specifically, the solution works through:

Price Information: M-Farm enables farmers to inquire current market prices of different crops from different regions and/or specific markets
Group Buying: M-Farm is able to aggregates farmers needs/orders and connect them with farm input suppliers
Group Selling: M-Farm enables farmers to sell collectively and connect them with a ready market thereby increasing their productivity.

M-Farms’ Solution

The M-Farmer solution has taken advantage of the on-going phenomenal growth of mobile technology across Africa. With access to the Internet yet to have impact on rural farming in these areas, M-Farm has adopted an SMS-based solution for achieving its goal.

Farmers in Kenya simply SMS the number 3535 to get information pertaining to the retail price of their produce, buy their farm inputs directly from manufacturers at favorable prices, and find buyers for their produce. Also, M-Farm has a contract with a local exporter, who buys the produce directly from the farmers using their mobile devices thereby minimizing the transportation challenge. This gives farmers access to a reliable and guaranteed market that enjoys stable year-round prices while eliminating middlemen and lowering transaction costs.

Below is a 2-minute clip on the winning of M-Farm’s IPO48 competition featuring Jamila Abass, a co-founder and CEO of MFarm Ltd (K) and other team members.

Access to M-Farm is by subscription with a free 30-day trial for users. For more information on M-Farm, visit here.

April 9, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

8Villages: A new social network app for smallholder farmers

Photo Credit: 8Villages.com

One of the new ICT solutions that I have discovered and love to share with agricultural commodity value chain implementers is 8Villages, a mobile platform that links farmers to their communities of peers, input suppliers, and their external business partners.

Below is a short discussion that I had with the Founder and CEO of 8villages Mathieu Le Bras, when I spoke to him on skype from Singapore this week:

Question: A social network app for farmers – what type of farmers are you talking about?

In his response, Mathieu who is an agronomist by profession with over 10 years of experience working with smallholder farmers in the developing nations was very confident of what his ICT solution is all about. His answer was yes, a social network platform for smallholder farmers.

Of course, the follow-up question was what is the literacy level of these smallholder farmers that you are talking about?

With the current focus of 8Villages solution on Asia, beginning from Indonesia, the CEO painted a bright picture about the literacy level of the targeted farmers which is in contrast to the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Global Educational statistics shows that about 48% of Indonesians live in rural villages with around 42% of its labor force in agriculture. The interesting part of this statistics is that, most children in Indonesia have high literacy rate, with around 90% of adults able to read and write. The CEO confirms this that, a very high percentage of the users of the platform are able to read and write and are perfectly using the online platform.

That said, the literacy barrier may be overcome for the users of 8villages mobile platform.

My next concern was about content for the users. Mr Le Bras as an agronomist perfectly understands the importance of quality agricultural content for successful farming by the smallholder farmers. 8Villages according to the CEO, depends on user-generated content by the users of the platform. 8Villages then uses its platform to extracts and share the content with the potential users.

So how is this done? Mathieu described the system as an online network that combines voice, SMS and the Internet to connect farmers and their partners. The platform allows users – farmers and agribusinesses to generate microblog posts about their products, share brand comparison, give feedback on products and farming techniques, and attend trainings provided by experts.

On the nature of the existing social network among farmers, Mathieu argued that for most of these ICT solutions to work, developers and program implementers need to understand how farmers behave. He explained that smallholder farmers have strong and rich social network within their communities and these networks should be utilized when thinking of communication tools for the farmers.

For more information on why the platform, and the potential benefits to the users, visit 8Villages.

March 29, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Food Security, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

ICTs for “Productivity” Component of the Ag. Value Chain

Photo Credit: The African

Smallholder farmers face agricultural productivity challenges in the areas of under-investment in R&D; the actual processes of agricultural research and communication; access and utilization of agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizer, agrochemicals, etc. by farmers; and accurate information on field production practices. On the other hand, success stories of the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to minimize each of these challenges are being documented across the globe and the potential for increasing the impact of ICTs on agricultural production is huge.

As the first in the 3-piece series on “Mapping ICT Solutions along the Agricultural Value Chain”, this post explains how ICT solutions are being used or can be used by value chain actors within the productivity segment of the value chain. ICT solutions in this category may support value chain actors who are involved in agricultural research and development, input manufacture and supply, extension, and production for increased access to information and knowledge for agricultural production.

Potential ICT Solutions for Agricultural Research and Development (R&D)

Agricultural R&D is a key component of the value chain and in most developing nations, has great limitation due to poor access to the global knowledge pool by the developing nations researchers. ICT solutions in this sub-category may support the work of agricultural researchers, agricultural science students, extension staffs, and farmers to facilitate access to scientific knowledge, exchange of information between and among them.

Examples of ICT solutions identified include mobile applications such as the i) OakMapper, a mobile application which allows users to submit occurrences of Sudden Oak Death (SOD), search for incidents, and to report them to the geospatial enabled database; ii) Rural Universe Network (RUNetwork), a network of several partners in the Caribbean to help improve the availability of local knowledge and information through the development of a rural communication system; iii) eRails, a free website for partners across Africa working in the area of agriculture and rural development to help them share their new innovations; iv) AGORA and TEEAL by FAO and Cornell University respectively helping to increase access of developing nations researchers and academics to scientific journals to facilitate their research work.

Photo Credit: Thulasy Balasubramaniam and Graham Lettner

Potential ICT Solutions for Access to Agricultural Inputs

Increased access to inputs such as seed, animal feed, fertilizer, machinery, financial support, insurance, and irrigation systems at the right time, the right price, and in the right amounts is key for successful production by farmers. Actors within this segment are mostly private sector and for-profit firms that need to be in constant communication with the smallholder farmers to ensure profitable investment. Communication tools are important for continuous flow of information between these partners to be able to develop the right input that works for the farmers. At the same time, input manufacturers and suppliers are expected to collaborate with researchers who test these inputs for their suitability for farmers to help in commercialization and scaling up promising agricultural technologies that could benefit smallholder farmers.

ICT solutions within this category may support activities of input manufacturers, suppliers, and users for timely, more efficient and effective use of these agricultural inputs. Some of the ICT applications identified include the use of i) E-Voucher system in Zambia to facilitate easy access to inputs by farmers, help involve the private sector, and reduce fraud in the delivery of these inputs; ii) the Agrian Mobile Information Center, a mobile app that allows users to access product information while in the field, search by product name, active ingredients, signal word, etc. and iii) Kilimo Salama, an input insurance system in Kenya for farmers as they purchase inputs for their farms.

Potential ICT Solutions for Agricultural Production

Apart from inputs and other new technologies from research, farmers put in a lot of resources and efforts into the actual production process on the field. Smallholder farmers across the globe are known for their innovative activities in the face of limited access to scientific knowledge and resources for production. Information communication technologies can play significant role in either way – connecting them to scientific resources and information and also link these farmers together to share their indigenous knowledge and experiences acquired over the years. ICT solutions in this sub-category may help in communicating information to support field activities by farmers such as weather, pest and diseases, soil nutrient levels, harvesting practices, gestation cycles, and knowledge sharing among farming communities.

Photo Credit: FAO

Some of the tools identified within this group include i) Crop Calendar, an online resource created by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which provides timely information about seeds to promote local crop production by farmers; ii) iCow, a voice-based mobile application that prompts cattle farmers on vital days of cows gestation period; iii) NEXT2, a geo-social application that is able to connect farmers with similar interest that are geographically co-located through SMS, voice, or mobile web to share local knowledge, expertise and experiences; and iv) a host of traditional radio programs that are assisting farmers’ production activities.

In concluding this piece, it is clear that the huge potential of the new digital network for agricultural productivity is yet to be fully exploited for smallholder farmers. The technologies are affecting the work of agricultural researchers, extension workers, input manufacturers and distributors, private sector organizations interested in partnering with governments to improve agriculture, and some farmers at the remotest communities. But stakeholders need to devise better strategies for fully integrating these solutions into their projects.

This is the first in a 3-part series that explains the role of ICTs within the three major stages of the agricultural value chain – Productivity, Marketing, & Monitoring and Evaluation. We’ll soon be launching a dynamic and interactive version of “Apps4Ag Database” project on March 9^th during GBI’s TechTalk:Mapping ICTs Along the Ag Value Chain.

March 6, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

AMIS-Cameroon for UN’s MDGs 1, 3, 7, and 8

Photo Credit: AMIS-Cameroon

AMIS-Cameroon is bridging information gap in the African country of Cameroon by connecting farmers with vital information through SMS thereby boosting sustainable agricultural activities that promote the UN’s Millennium Development Goals 1 (Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger), 3 (Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women), 7 (Ensure environmental Sustainability), and 8 (Develop a Global Partnership for Development).

AMIS-Cameroon uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) to create connections between farmers and agricultural technicians to encourage them to support each other through mutual advice and knowledge sharing. Through information hubs that are located in the rural farming communities, AMIS-Cameroon gathers product information and send via SMS to consumer groups who buy at farmers’ prices.

The project is using a fully coded, fully automated 24/7 information feedback loop which farmers and consumers can consult for their different needs. The concept has undergone a thorough field investigation sponsored by SPIDER.ORG and currently seeking financial support to carry out a massive outreach that would enable scaling to serve the over 12 million Cameroonian farmers. The model is simple and is replicable.

GBI followed up with AMIS-Cameroon to understand how such a simple SMS innovation can help address the United Nations Millennium Development Goals 1, 3, 7 and 8. Below is the response from Tambe Harry Agbor, the Executive Director of Amis-Cameroon.

Photo Credit: UN MDGs

AMIS-Cameroon and MDG 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
The problem of Cameroonian farmers is a small reflection of what African farmers in general suffer from – acute lack of information. This lack of information means that from planting, to harvesting through location of markets to sell their products, farmers are not expose to information that predisposes them to carry out informed investment decisions to create wealth for them and their families. Given that the shelf-life of most of these agricultural products is very short, any unsold products end up as waste within the immediate vicinity of the farming population, since they do not have information about far flung markets where their products are in demand for a better price. Thus both farmers and consumers remain confined to a vicious cycle of poverty (for the farmers-since they cannot sell their products to create wealth) and hunger (for the consumers-who do not get these products which the farmers dump or give to animals)

At AMIS-Cameroon, we use SMS technology to target these alienated groups with information that brings them together in a mutually beneficial relationship where farmers can sell their products profitably and use the money to take care of life’s basic necessities such as the health and education of their children on the one hand, and on the other hand the consumers get information about where to locate nutritive products which can keep starvation and hunger at bay.

AMIS-Cameroon and MDG 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

AMIS-Cameroon democratizes the process of information dissemination. Most of our cultural values in Africa relegate women to the role of passive observer even if it is “she” who has the ideas that would take her family out of the stigma of poverty. Thus when we send the same information to both men and women, informing them how to plant crops formerly reserved for males, we are in effect giving both groups the impartial possibility to make use of the information at their disposal to best advantage. Some women farmers have till date not been able to carry out the production of certain food crops which are considered crops for men.

Furthermore, the possibility to earn stable incomes from agriculture has caused some parents to rethink their position on girl child education. When the family is poor, everything is done to make sure that the girl child stays at home and work so that her brother can get an education. But when we send out information which has the ability to connect farmers to markets, and increase the revenue streams of the family, parents then tend to feel more comfortable to invest also in the education of their girl child. Hence educated women can also vie for public office based on the possibility of their families to crawl out of the $2 per day curse to earning higher income returns that prioritizes girls’ education on the same level with boys’ education.

AMIS-Cameroon and MDG 7: Ensure environmental Sustainability

For the past decades, farmers have essentially been farming in the dark. Through ignorance, they have continued to deplete irreplaceable ecosystems and damaging the essential web of life so central to our very existence. It is not uncommon in most Cameroonian villages today for families to walk for very long distances before getting wood to cook their food, or even fauna to spice their delicacies. The fast encroaching desertification in most of our Sub-Saharan countries is a testimony of the extensive damage done to the environment through irresponsible farming practices where whole forests are destroyed, soil-enriching microorganisms killed, and loosed sub soils washed away by erosion.

In collaboration with sustainability experts and agronomists, we deliver timely advice via SMS to new entrants into the farming profession so that they can carry out responsible practices that preserve the fragile ecosystems which have been stretched to their limits by centuries of uncontrolled practices that harm none other than the farmers themselves.

AMIS-Cameroon and MDG 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

When we started the AMIS-Cameroon Project, one of the most recurrent complaints we encountered in the field was that experienced farmers have always refused to share their know-how with younger inexperienced farmers. We instituted an information exchange forum for farmers whereby farmers in region A tell us what must be done for a particular crop in order to enhance its productivity. When we visit Region B we shared this information with them, and those in Region B in turn become more willing to share their own experiences which we take back to farmers in region A. Through this practice we got farmers to understand that they are winners when they share agricultural technologies with one another, and that they stand to lose everything if they hide their knowledge. By encouraging them to ‘Think Development locally’ we let them see just how possible it is for them to ‘Develop Globally’.

Through our portal at www.amis-cameroon.org, we receive product requests for farmers in Cameroon from consumers from abroad. We then blast such SMS locally and farmers are rallied at short notice to supply their nearest product depot where our chain of organized transporters pick them up and deliver for onward delivery to clients.

Impacts of AMIS-Cameroon

In conclusion, AMIS-Cameroon has developed 10 business models which if sponsored shall generate direct employment and create sure revenue streams for all actors involved along the value chain. Some of the significant achievements of the project so far include increased in subscriber base from an initial 200 farmers in 2009 to well over 1500 by 2010 by providing 4 SMS per week to these users. In 2011, bee farmers in Kumbo village in Cameroon were connected to new markets enabling them to increase their sales by over 50% in markets that knew nothing about their natural honey. The project has also created a very important partnership with KIP Solutions, a firm based in the USA that is helping to define better strategies to further the vision of the project.

For more information and to support this vision of bridging information gap for African farmers, visit AMIS-Cameroon.

February 29, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Extension Service, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Fasal: A Free SMS Service to Boost Farmers’ Income

Photo Credit: Intuit Fasal

Over 500 000 rural farmers in India can now access free daily market information and weather services on their cell phones with the help of Intuit Fasal platform, an SMS based mobile service.

Fasal begun as an experiment after it was recognized that rural farmers in Karnataka, India lack price information in relevant multiple markets; have issues with price transparency in markets; and also lack knowledge of potential buyers of their farm produce.

After a period of interaction between some company executives and the farmers in their rural setting, it was identified that the above challenges lead to information gaps that have a huge impact on the livelihood of the farmers and their families who often look at existing means of livelihood as one that does not provide sufficient returns.

The opportunity to provide a service where actionable information on price, potential buyer, weather, etc. would be invaluable to farming communities while also helping bridge the gap for large organizations to reach out with relevant offerings and advisory services in India was irresistible and therein was born Fasal.

Fasal has a single objective of helping farmers make more money or save more money! And this is being achieved through a business model that ensures that Fasal is a free for the farmer while companies providing household items to these rural communities, consumer durables, automotive equipments, agriculture implement and inputs, financial service, consumer goods, and other advertisers are rather charged for the service.

How it Works

Step One: A farmer calls toll free number in their respective local languages to register for Fasal. The farmer is then profiled by the staffs of Fasal based on information such as the commodity s/he grows, current crop season, land size under cultivation, etc. The farmer’s profile is then mapped to the markets that s/he visits to sell his or her produce.

Step Two: Based on this highly personalized information of each farmer, regular market and weather information are sent in their preferred local language at a time that it is most actionable. Additional relevant messaging is also sent on the basis of farmers’ profile such as use of irrigation facilities or ownership of farm equipments, etc.

Step Three: Using a complex and patented matching algorithms, Fasal service connects farmers to potential buyers/agents/institutions who would like to connect directly with farmers and make a purchase – creating an engaged and busy marketplace. The service using complex matching algorithms ensures that the multiple service messages reach the farmer every day, providing him/her data so that s/he can make informed decisions.

Impact

Even though the service is still at its infancy, its social and economic impact on the rural communities is being closely monitored, including the use of independent third-party research. According to Fasal, the vast majority of Fasal customers in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat found the service useful and it is helping them earn an average of 20% more with the service.

For more information, visit Fasal site and also read this interesting article about the innovation.

January 10, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Extension Service, Farmer to Farmer, Food Security, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Reflections on mAg. Services: Content Sourcing, Quality Assurance & Dissemination

Photo Credit: IITA

NB: This is my personal analysis of contributions to question five from the forum. This post is the fifth in series of six, analyzing each of the six forum questions that were discussed.

With my interest in this area, I began the discussion with a post which pointed out the need to source content from farmers themselves – that is farmers’ local knowledge and innovations (FLK/I). A number of subsequent posts agreed with the fact that local knowledge is critical, and any effort to spread this knowledge and prevent its dearth by recording it through technology is also essential.

Question 5: What are the methods for sourcing appropriate content to be delivered to farmers, what standards should be followed when disseminating information to farmers, and who is best placed to manage quality assurance?

Most often when it comes to services for farmers, we immediately jump into ways of providing technical/scientific content. So I may say my post did change the tone of discussion of the question, at least at the beginning. Below are some of the ways that FLK/I could be sourced from farmers as primary content and then improved through other scientific methods for use by these farmers.

Sourcing Methods of Farmers Local Knowledge and Innovations (FLKI)

Use of face-to-face meeting with farmers to help identify FLK/I and then “validate” it together with them
Use of mobile vans with the necessary recording equipments to source content from farmers
Use of radio in combination with mobile phones to source FLK/I from farmers. Specifically, radio “Phone-In” program in most parts of Africa could be an excellent method
Farmers could be trained with basic documenting tools so that while they are engaged in their local farming activities, they can also be recording these activities for researchers to use later in their research to improve these innovations.

Other examples of the use of ICTs to facilitate peer-to-peer knowledge sharing among farmers and possibly for sourcing content for farmers were also pointed out by other discussants as Awaaz.De, Digital Green, and Video Viewing Club (VVC).

Another promising application that was mentioned later during the discussion is NEXT2 – a geosocial network app that automatically connects subscribers around location and by common topics of interest or concern. I believe the potential of this app is great for those interested in utilizing farmers local knowledge and innovations. While the app may primarily help strengthen the existing social capital among farmers through knowledge sharing, it could also be used to strengthen the link between farmers and their officers with close geographic proximity.

Customized/Localized Content for Farmers

A related point made by another contributor emphasized localized content instead of global scientific knowledge, which may not be appropriate for all contexts. The post asked for a process to build a database of customized content that is relevant to a group of farmers instead of defining apriori what is needed. The contributor called for a system where farmers can both receive support when they need it, and provide supports to others when it is in their area of expertise. Also with the use of technology such as efficient search interface, ‘farmers’ will be able to take advantage of previously answered questions when it becomes necessary.

In fact this point agrees with one of the components of the mFarmer Initiative that aims at providing bespoke, digital agriculture content via an online database. Making this database a dynamic resource with up-to-date content will be very useful for agricultural development.

Conventional Approaches to Content Sourcing

While others agreed that knowledge from farmers is important to remember, they believe that the bulk of content farmers need to improve their farming techniques is from known sources such as public and private extension services, R&D units (both private and public), and universities. The problem with the content from these sources is that they are in diverse formats that needed to be managed for farmers to be able to use. Below is a summary of traditional methods of sourcing content for farmers:

Printed literature and website information that are authentic and are available in public domain
For information not available in the public domain, special tie-up with appropriate organizations to enable content enrichment and broadening of the knowledge base
Feedback and success stories from the customers

Feedback on Content Versus User-Generated Content

Another important contribution from the experts pointed out the difference between feedback from farmers and content being generated by farmers. Feedback is useful to increase the relevance of the service, content itself, content sourcing methods and understanding of the on-the-ground needs by the research units. On the user-generated content, it may be appropriate for a service provider to take this approach, but it should be noted that the quality of the advice given by one user to another, inevitably affects the perceived quality of the service itself.

Who is Best Placed for Quality Assurance?

Intermediaries? The first concern of how quality assurance should be structured for user-generated model so that it increases the value and doesn’t become a bottle-neck for the scaling up was raised. Even though there was no direct response to this concern, the structured architecture of M-Kilimo and IKSL platforms where their systems have frontline staff, supported by subject matter experts/specialist and again independent evaluators were cited as good examples for content validation.

But at the same time, a concern was raised with the competency of these intermediaries such as knowledge workers, call center operators, and helpline that are critical part of the value chain. Most often, they have access to a vast repository of content and in majority of cases, take the final decision on what content to push to the farmer. Experts are usually one step removed from this process.

This has been my argument after my 2009 study in Ghana where I stated that the mere emergence of intermediaries cannot solve the knowledge barrier challenges that we currently have. We need strategies that ensure that their activities are coordinated (See my four component-strategy to do this).

Research Institutes? It was also pointed out that sourcing, aggregating, managing and assuring quality content for mobile agricultural services is complex. The role of national agricultural research institutes and universities is vital in this process to validate and adapt the content to the local context of the users.

International Organizations? The case of TECA’s partnership with organizations such as the Grameen foundation to use TECA’s information for their farmer helplines and community workers was also shared. It noted that a lot of highly relevant knowledge about successful agricultural practices and technologies for small producers comes from projects but when the project ends, the lessons learnt are often not documented in a way that could be useful for extensionists, local NGOs and farmer cooperatives in the project area and beyond.

Below is quick breakdown from a discussant on quality assurance of content for farmers:

In-house content personnel for developing content plan and protocol
Experts who will be vetting the content for messages
In-house content personnel for carrying out regular internal audit
Obtaining feedback from farmers through participatory appraisal to improve the services
Periodic audits conducted by external agencies

Standards to Follow while Disseminating Information to Farmers

Protocol of information dissemination is required to be developed for each category of information.
Requirement in respect of the following should be well defined in these protocols of information dissemination such as source, adequacy, accuracy, relevance (location specific), clarity, and sensitivity to the socio-cultural aspects

In summary, as we explore mobile agricultural information services, it is expedient for us to combine these services with human actions. There may be situations where experts will need to visit farmers field to be able to do the right diagnosis to the problem. Those from the field will agree that not all problems can be solved through phone calls or SMS. Sometimes, the experts need to see the infestation, disease, etc. on the ground to be able to recommend a solution. We need the mobile services but at the same time we should be able to determine when to use it, especially when we are concern with quality of content to the users.

NB: The last in the series (6th) is “Reflections on mAg Services: Mistakes and Pitfalls of MNOs/NGOs” (Available on 01/05/2012)

The first, second, third and fourth posts are:

1. “Reflections on mAg. Services: Partnerships Between MNOs and APs”

2. “Reflections on mAg. Services: Barriers to Scale“

3. “Reflections on mAg Services: Is there a Business Case for Serving Farmers?“

4. “Reflections on mAg Services: Financial Sustainability”

January 3, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Extension Service, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Reflections on mAg. Services: Barriers to Scale

Photo Credit: Spore

NB: This is my personal analysis of contributions to question two from the forum. This post is the second in series of six, analyzing each of the six forum questions that were discussed.

One of the objectives of the mFarmer Initiative is to drive scalable, replicable and commercially successful mobile agricultural solutions that bridge the information gap and increase the productivity and income of rural smallholders. With this mind, the second forum question was about barriers to scaling mobile agricultural services as stated below:

Question 2: What are the barriers to reaching scale with mobile agriculture information services and how can partnering with a mobile network operator (MNO) reduce these?

To really answer this second question, discussants needed to first understand what a successful ‘scaled’ mobile agricultural service is; identify the barriers to scale; and then look at the unique value propositions that each partner brings and their roles in the partnership.

Successful Scaled Mobile Agricultural Service?

The challenges associated with scaling ICT projects in general and mobile services in specific came up several times during the discussion. Scale by default may be seen in terms of wide-reaching impact of the service through adoption by a large number of individuals, communities, regions, etc. It is about moving projects from being islands of excellence to serve and empower a larger audience. Others also look at quality benefits of the service to more people over a wider geographical area, more equitably, more quickly, and more lastingly. So what are the barriers to taking mobile agricultural services from small-scale level to a larger scale and at the same time maintaining the quality and ensuring sustainability?

Below is my summary of barriers to scale of mobile agricultural services from the forum:

Infrastructure strength – weak presence in terms of infrastructure of MNOs could be a challenge to scaling
Reliability of message delivery – less reliability in delivery of messages to the customers may prevent future expansion
Cost of delivery mechanism – high cost of the delivery mechanism could also be a challenge to the MNO
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) – low ARPU of customers shows how unprofitable the MNO will be and a barrier to scale
Language – high diversity of local languages within a given country/region of service deployment could affect smooth scaling
Literacy – low illiteracy rate in a country or region may affect successful scaling of mobile agriculture service
Technology – highly complex mobile handsets, difficult-to-use interface and medium of delivery could be a barrier
Government Policies – since most of these mobile agricultural services are private sector driven, without sound government information and agricultural policies and regulations, it will be difficult to scale
Accessibility – to MNO for smooth and easy enrolment process and Point of Presence for post-sales service
Affordability – expensive services to the user will prevent wide-scale adoption
Local needs of users – lack of understanding of local needs and demands of the users

“If right products in which the targeted beneficiaries find value are created, scaling should happen by itself.”

Part B: How can partnering with a mobile network operator (MNO) reduce barriers to scaling mobile agricultural services?

The first post in response to the main question seemed to address this second part of the question that focus more on “intermediaries.” The post argued that barriers to scale of market information systems are more about the ‘architecture’ of the system than the kind/type of partnerships formed between and among the service providers and MNOs. In other words, partnership with MNOs is not a magic wand for scaling mobile agricultural services.

So does it worth it for agricultural value added service provider to partner with MNO for scaling?

This interesting post critiqued the role of intermediaries in delivering market information to users within the agricultural value chain. The contributor argued that the cost involved in identifying potential intermediaries, training and maintaining them to access agricultural information through SMS or helpline services and then delivering it to the farmers is a huge challenge to scaling and sustainability.

Based on the contributions from the forum, I have identified two types of intermediaries namely ‘human intermediaries’ and ‘technological intermediaries’ in the context of mobile agricultural service delivery.

Human Intermediaries

This includes intermediaries working directly with farmers such as the agricultural extension agents and also the Grameen Foundations Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs). The challenges associated with the human intermediaries have led to the enormous utilization of the technological intermediaries.

Technological Intermediaries

The technological intermediaries are the communication technologies that ensure direct-to-farmer services, and in this case mobile services such as SMS, data, voice, etc. that are all critical channels for delivering targeted, relevant and actionable information to as many farmers as possible. But the need to use the right technology at the right stage of the value chain for effective content delivery was deliberated upon.

a) SMS services: The ability of SMS services like Esoko and Reuters Market Light (RML) to timely deliver market information to farmers has been well documented but the actual impact of these services on the production of the farmers and their living conditions is yet to be documented. Meanwhile, the social and technological challenges associated with SMS in these rural areas have been mentioned as a barrier. While the cost of providing SMS service may be cheap, due to the low literacy rates in these areas and the complexity with some of the user interface, some discussants do not see the future of SMS in providing mobile agricultural services to farmers.

Some other contributions pointed out the challenge with illiteracy and SMS use but cited examples where farmers are overcoming this by engaging other family members to read and translate the SMS messages for them, especially with Mobile Money services. With agricultural information, farmer groups/cooperatives are the target rather than individual farmers so that within each group, at least one literate member can play the intermediary role by reading and translating text messages to other group members.

The idea of using volunteers or exploring national service or youth service schemes in some parts of Africa to provide agricultural information through the technological intermediaries to smoothly transition into more sustainable economic models was also brought up.

b) Voice-based services: When it comes to voice-based services, discussants were concerned with their economic sustainability. They argued that interactive voice response (IVR) that allows computers to interact with humans, and call centers are the most costly information delivery mechanisms. And since farmers’ willingness to pay for agronomic information tends to be low, any business model that depends on IVR or call centers may need some other funding alternatives for sustenance. So the key question to ask is, if there are any indications that farmers’ willingness-to-pay will increase to the point of equilibrium with the cost of these services?

Another view is to go automatically with IVR without any real time human input, which can empower farmers directly to search and find information they need, or feed the system with information they have through voice technology. Some examples of systems currently exploring this system includes Voice Browsing Acceptance and Trust (VBAT), Web Alliance for Re-greening in Africa (W4RA), and Voice-based Community-Centric Mobile Services (VOICES).

And so What?

The need to take some of the existing mobile agricultural services from one level to another has been acknowledged. Even though partnering with a MNO is not a magic wand to scaling of these projects, the potentials for such a partnership as noted in the discussion of question one, and the barriers outlined above may necessitate collaboration for scaling.

The issues of intermediaries that dominated the second part of the discussion is a good example for experts (both from MNOs and agricultural partners) to understand all the complexities with mobile agricultural services. It is more than technology. It is about using the right technology at the right time to deliver content in the right format for users. It is about combining social and technological processes to deliver user-centered content.

The success story of IKSL in India came up again to attest to the fact that, partnership can help in scaling mobile agricultural services. But the success of IKSL is linked to the partnership with IFFCO, a 40 year old co-operative that has a strong base with the users. The idea of working towards removing human intermediaries in mobile agricultural system can me catastrophic. The citing of Direct2Farm project of CABI which aims at enabling farmers to seek and source information, tailor-made to their individual need, at any time in any form/format sounds great. But a search on this Direct2Farm project does not give any further information.

We will have to wait to see how this works – either through the automatic IVR system or the CABI’s Direct2Farm project. But I believe the consensus at the end of the discussion is that the technological intermediaries are not to replace the human intermediaries but to be used in stages of the value chain where the human intermediaries are not needed. I agree with another contributor who stated that “The issue is to remove people where they are not critical, so that services can increase in quality, quantity, and efficiency.”

The next in series (3rd) is Reflections on mAg Services: Is there a Business Case for Serving Farmers? and available on 12/29/2011.

The first post is “Reflections on mAg Services: Partnerships Between MNOs and APs”

December 26, 2011/by actualize