Tag Archive for: agriculture

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Tech Talk: Mapping ICTs Along the Ag Value Chain

Woman in corn field holding out cell phone

New ICT solutions for agricultural development are being developed at break-neck speed, and its hard to keep track of what’s out there, what works, and how it best fits into your project. At this month’s Tech Talk, GBI will demonstrate how ICT applications can complement a value chain approach to agricultural development, and we will bring in users and developers of these apps to explain their tools and how they are implemented. We’ll also unveil a new and useful interactive tool “Ag Apps Along the Value Chain,” that maps a collected inventory of over 120 apps and ICT solutions along the agricultural value chain.

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Benjamin Addom is a knowledge management specialist with training and experience in the use of ICTs for development. He has over 9 years of experience in the field of agriculture, food security, ICT4D, teaching, training, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation. He holds a PhD in Information Science and Technology from Syracuse University School of Information Studies, masters in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University, and a bachelors in General Agriculture from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana.

With special presentations by

  • Stephen Sellers, CEO, Co-Founder SourceTrace
  • Jacob N. Maaga, CEO, Africa Commodities & Futures Exchange
  • Or Dashevsky, Solution Architect, Catholic Relief Services

 

Make sure to check out our archives of previous GBI Tech Talks.

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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.

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Can ICTs help reduce side-selling? Challenges with financing the Ag Value Chain

Photo Credit: Microlinks

I was part of a recent USAID After Hours Seminar Series (even though this particular one was a breakfast event) sponsored by the Microenterprise Development office on the topic “Viewing Value Chain and Household Finance From a Demand Perspective.”

The discussion was led by Geoffrey Chalmers, a senior technical advisor at ACDI/VOCA and Jason Agar, Director of Kadale Consultants Limited who joined from the UK. The speakers identified among others challenges to the value chain financing from a demand side perspective. These include ‘side-selling’ which acts as disruption for agricultural value chains; enterprises and households facing production, price and market risks; the difficulties involved in obtaining finance for fixed asset; farmers losing value through forced early sale; exploitative power relations between producers and buyers; and weak working capital and cashflow within the value chain.

The speakers cited a case from Malawi where they identified governance structure – open (market based) vs. closed (directed) as one of the causes of side-selling and recommended “hungry season payments” to help farmers meet household demands for food, school fees at times of low income inflow. In Nicaragua, they observed that supervision of the harvesting process and provision of additional services by the union cooperatives and local microfinance institution (MFI) to the farmers could help reduce the side-selling.

So what is Side-Selling in the context of the agricultural value chain financing?

One of the features of the value chain approach to agriculture is the contractual arrangements between firms such as microfinance institution (MFI) and the farmers or producers. Farmers under contract are provided with inputs, training, technical assistance, credit, and other services as well as having a guaranteed market for their produce. These farmers are expected to sell their produce to the financing firm with guaranteed, and most of the time pre-determined price.

But at harvest time when the prices of the produce are higher in the external market compared to the pre-determined price with the financing firm, farmers have an incentive to sell to the spot market instead of selling to the firm that financed them. This practice is known as side-selling or diversion. Side-selling may take forms such as diverting inputs from firms to non-contracted crops; by not adhering to the production schedule agreed upon with the firm; by directly side-selling the produce to other buyers; or by failing to deliver the agreed volume and quality on time.

The root cause of side-selling in Ag Value Chain may be “communication”

So could the challenge with side-selling have anything to do with communication between the actors? If yes, how can the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) help in reducing side selling?

Information asymmetry between two parties in contract such as farmers and MFIs where one party has more or better information than the other could be the root cause for side-selling in agricultural value chains. In this case there is an information gap between the two parties, where farmers have less access to information and poor knowledge of the entire process assumed that there is imbalance of power in transactions and therefore resort to such practices as side-selling.

My personal experience with side-selling, a practice which was referred to as “Diversion” in the cotton industry in Ghana far back in the early 2000, confirms the communication challenge. The cotton sector in Ghana at the time was with little regulation leading to poor or lack of communication among the cotton companies as well as between the companies and the farmers. Farmers took advantage of the situation to defraud the companies through some of the practices associated with side-selling described above.

ICTs and Communication in the Ag Value Chain

Photo Credit: cartoonstock.com

ICTs are “communication tools” that are enabling access to information by rural farmers located in remote communities. These tools are facilitating activities associated with access to inputs by producers, the actual productions process by farmers, marketing and processing by retailers, and monitoring and evaluation of the transaction by the financiers and other donors. Integrating ICTs into the production, marketing, and M&E components of the value chain will ensure rapid flow of information between the stakeholders which will minimize misunderstandings, and allow for risk management, and provide higher levels of transparency.

Creating better communication environment between farmers, input suppliers, and buyers and also among the MFIs or sponsoring companies could reduce side-selling. Specifically, ICTs can be used in some of the following ways to reduce side-selling:

  • a) E-vouchers are excellent and more trusted systems for better transactions between farmers and input suppliers and can be integrated into the Ag VC,
  • b) Field staffs of MFIs and other firms could integrate ICT solutions into their production processes for precision agriculture that help farmers increase their production thereby minimizing side-selling,
  • c) iPad/iPhone applications are widely used now for data gathering and for making policy decisions,
  • d) ICTs could be used to gather accurate demographic information about farmers, their farm sizes, produce information on the field before harvest,
  • e) Specific traceability applications are being used to monitor produce from the field through to the final destination of consumption thereby minimizing fraud,
  • f) Market information systems are now available even in remote communities to get farmers informed of the global market as well as the local market,
  • g) With fast data gathering, ICTs can allow farmers to be paid faster to reduce the side-selling for other “urgent” needs,
  • h) ICTs can facilitate automated processes at the collection centers to minimize damage of perishable goods and increase the value of the produce for farmers,
  • i) Using ICTs to make farmers aware of the dangers and repercussions with side-selling due to improved and accurate data with the MFIs might help reduce side-selling,
  • j) ICTs are collaboration tools and could be used to facilitate collaboration among the sponsoring firms and ensure smooth flow of information among them to prevent destructive competition among them. Such competition among MFIs and sponsoring firms enables producers to rob one company for another.

ICTs are not the magic wand to the side-selling challenge with the financing of agricultural value chain. They are technological tools that can be used to catalyze the social processes by the stakeholders to help address the challenge.

Visit here for detailed information and resources on this event and future events by Microlinks.

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Social Media @ IFAD’s 2012 GC Meeting

Social Media team of IFAD- 2010

Photo Credit: IFAD

The 35th Session of International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD’s) Governing Council (GC) is currently underway with innovative use of social media for more inclusive, interactive and impact-oriented forum.

The 2-day event with the theme “Sustainable smallholder agriculture: feeding the world, protecting the planet” takes off officially on Wednesday at IFAD’s headquarters in Rome with side events such as Fourth global meeting of the Farmers’  Forum and  Haiti post-earthquake support program for food security and employment generation in affectted areas taking place on Tuesday.

The meeting is expected to provide a platform for Member States, partners and the public to discuss and debate what needs to be done to enable smallholder farmers to contribute to raising food availability by 7% by 2050 that is required to feed a growing, more urbanized population.

To stimulate the conversation, IFAD’s strong team of social media reporters are on the ground to get you informed and get you involved. The social reporters will keep the outside world informed through blogs, tweets, posting interviews and pictures on the following IFAD social media channels.

Live tweets will be displayed on the twitter wall in the Plenary Hall, in the meeting rooms and in the atrium. Delegates are encouraged to share their ideas, views and insights via social media channels using #ifadgc hashtag.

The virtual audience can follow the proceedings and interact with the prominent guests and panelists on the above social media channels. Plenary sessions, high-level panels, center stage events and regional and other events taking place in the Plenary Hall and Oval Room will also be webcast respectively at the following urls:

To get more information on IFAD’s Governing Council, visit here.

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Using Radio to Improve Local Responses to Climate Variability: The Case of Alpaca Farmers in the Peruvian Andes

Photo Credit: CDI and IRDC

The Centre for Development Informatics (CDI) at the University of Manchester with the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) recently released a report on agricultural adaption for climate change. This report, “Using Radio to Improve Local Responses to Climate Variability,” focuses on a radio program made available to alpaca farmers in the Peruvian Andes.

Life of farmers in the Andes is difficult at times are made more volatile in light of climate vulnerability. Lately there have been unexpected cold spells coupled with heavy snowfall. Peru has the largest number of South American camelids (the animal group that includes llama, alpaca, vicuna and guanaco) in the world, providing a subsistence to 65,000 families at altitudes of 3,500 to 5,000 meters, where other forms of agriculture are impractical. With climate variations that have lead to below-average temperatures and water scarcity, there has been an increased death rate of livestock, the “main income source, this loss of animals condemns further those who are already living in conditions of severe poverty.”

The study notes a lack of adaptive capacity among farmers for short-term action. To address this, the CAMELTEC project was initiated from 2008 to 2010 by Peruvian NGO Desco with financial support of Oxfam GB.

CAMELTEC broadcasted technological, social, political, and institutional information with a heavy focus on meteorological warnings, market prices of alpaca wool and husbandry advice to remote communities. CAMELTEC also aired a weekly 20-minute broadcast called Amanecer Alpaquero (Alpaca Farmer’s Daybreak) that included more specific information and discussion on pertinent problems, the show “was popular with all members of Alpaca farming families not just because of the vital information provided, but also because of its use of humor and music in transmitting its message.”

Radio was chosen as the medium for engaging farmers because of its low setup, operating costs, and “the availability of cheap battery-powered AM radios means that the majority of Alpaca farming households have access to local radio broadcasts.” Radio is deemed the best option for communication because it has the best reception coverage in the andean topography where it has been “historically cost-prohibitive to construct infrastructure such as paved roads, electricity and fixed telecommunications up to the farmsteads.” Though most farmers have mobile phones, the utility is limited.

 

The CAMELTEC project had three goals:

– strengthen local organizations such as farmer-cooperatives to enable the introduction of sustainable (including climate-sustainable) livestock practices

– improve the quality and quantity of alpaca wool being produced, through good husbandry and reproductive management practices

– improve income through changes to wool output and through better market access

 

The project is deemed successful, decreasing livestock mortality by 12% and saving an equivalent of US $500 on average per farmer. Another benefit of the radio program was its access to females, addressing traditional gender barriers that make it difficult for women to be involved in community farming meetings. The program has encouraged “a more systematic approach to breeding, the utilization of farming cooperatives for marketing of alpaca wool, and a more commercial approach to farming; all of which have helped to either maintain or raise income levels.

Photo Credit: CDI and IRDC

What made CAMELTEC successful? “Deep local knowledge and experience were vital… building as it did on Demsco’s many years of working with local farmers” to gain trust and expertise. However the inability to deliver skill knowledge and the high price of batteries limited the project. The study concludes with the suggestion of strengthening radio programing related to climate change adaptation to improve institutional building.

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Cheat Sheet: ICTs for Climate Change

How can ICTs be used to combat climate change? Stan Karanasios’s paper entitled “New & Emergent ICTs and Climate Change in Developing Countries” outlines emerging ICTs in 3 steps:

  • monitoring of climate change and the environment
  • disaster management
  • climate change adaptation
Excerpts from the paper outline uses of ICTs for climate change:

Monitoring of climate change and the environment

For developing countries to better understand their local climate and be able to anticipate climate change impacts, they must have adequate local and national observation networks, and access to the data captured from other global and regional networks. 

Types of technology include:

  • satellite systems
  • wireless broadband technologies
  • wireless sensor networks (WSN)
  • mobile phones
  • hand-held devices 
Examples of environmental monitors:
  • Rainfall and Landslide- In hilly regions of western India, SenSlide, a distributed sensor system, predicts rather than just detects landslides. Landslides occur frequently, often during the monsoon when rain causes significant damage. SenSlide makes use of WSN and strain gauges, providing data to a network.
  • Fire- In South Africa, FireHawk, a forest fire system of cameras with zoom lenses and microwave transmitters and receivers was implemented in mountainous and extreme temperate locations. The system automatically detects fires, even at night, limiting the impact of damage.
  • Flood- In Honduras, a WSN for flood monitoring was developed that was able to withstand river flooding and the severe stromes causing the floods, communicate over a 10,000 km river basin, predict flooding autonomously, and limit cost, allowing feasible implementation of the system.
  • Impacts of Agriculture- In India a WSN-based agriculture management system named COMMON-Sense Net, was deployed to support rain-fed agriculture and provide farmers with environmental data. Wireless sensors were deployed in geographical clusters, each with one base-station that was connected to a local server via a Wi-Fi link and organized in groups, each corresponding to a particular application, such as crop modeling, water conservation measures, or deficit irrigation management.

Disaster management

Responding to natural disasters in a timely and effective manner has emerged as an important climate change theme particularly in developing countries; where in addition to the immediate crisis vulnerable communities suffer excessively from the secondary post-disaster effects that compound the tragedy. In many cases, the existing telecommunication infrastructure will be significantly or completely destroyed by an extreme weather event, and hence rapidly deployable networks and other communication services need to be employed for disaster relief operations. 

Communication Methods:

  • Emergency Communication Systems- In Bangladesh an Integrated Information and Communication System is underway which will use satellite, wireless broadband, mobile phones and community radio services strengthening communication links between rescue and relief units and Emergency Operation Centers (EOC).
  • Rapidly Deployable Communications
  • Social Networking- During Typhoon Ondoy in the Philippines in 2009, local volunteers organized and disseminated information online through websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Organizations and affected people used these sites for timely reports concerning the extent of damage, to provide information on the resources required tand to allocate relief resources.
  • GIS & Other Information Systems- Visualize high risk zones; evacuation routes, shelters and the catalogue of available resource and their proximity
  • Early Warning Systems- satellite radio, mobile phones, cell broadcasting system, the web, WSNs, and CAP (common alerting protocol) can be coupled with climate data for immediate and short/medium/long-term warnings to minimize harm to vulnerable communities.

Disaster Management Project Example: Project DUMBO

Mesh Networks and Disaster Response in Thailand DUMBO,  a project initiated by  the Asian Institute of  Technology Internet Education and Research Laboratory, developed and tested asystem for response to emergency scenarios in Thailand . Making use of the concept of wireless mesh networks, DUMBO uses lightweight  portable mobile nodes  to  broaden  coverage and penetrate deep into  areas  not  accessible by  roads  or where the telecommunication  infrastructure  has  been  destroyed.  During  the trials in  Thailand, laptops  were carried on elephants to  extend thewireless  mesh  network  coverage.  On the networking  side,  the solution  utilised hybrid Wi­Fi and  satellite connectivity.  The second application component involved sensors, which allowed for  readings of  environmental data  such  as  temperature,  humidity,  pressure, wind­speed,  wind­ direction,  rainfall and  CO2.  The third application component involved facial recognition software that allowed rescuers to compare facial images captured from the site to the collection of known faces. This is one of a few systems in developing countries that  make use of  emergent  technologies  and  combine communications with integrated disaster applications

Climate change adaptation

To cope with current and future climate stress, communities – particularly those most vulnerable to developing countries – must build their resilience, including adopting appropriate technologies, while making the most of traditional knowledge, and diversifying their livelihoods. For instance, monitoring networks can inform habitat location (provide information to house communities away from a flood or landslide in prone areas), better agriculture (based on informed climate information or water allocation) and provide early warnings, amongst other applications. Mobile technology should be scaled-up for adaptation.

There is a lot of room for growth in developing ICTs for adapting to climate change through collecting, analyzing and disseminating information particularly in space-based systems, GIS, WSNs, wireless broadband technology, mobile technology, and soft technologies such as Web-based tools. By doing so, bottom-up local coping strategies will be encouraged.

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Biofuels: Off-grid answer for ICT access?

Biofuels… Good or Bad Idea? They’ve received positive hype from non-profits, corporations, and individuals only to be scorned by some environmentalists, economists, and other groups.

Photo Credit: GSMA

A common barrier facing rural regions is a lack of access to a reliable power supply. Being off the grid limits the ability to take advantage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) that could provide economic gain and increase quality of life. What’s the use of a mobile phone with innovative software applications if it can’t be recharged?

One popular answer for off-grid communities is building biofuel-based facilities that are run off of renewable resources. Biofuel is simply energy released directly or indirectly from living or recently living organisms. Wind and solar power are included, but fossil fuels are not because they are embedded in geological formations and nonrenewable.

Biofuels have been used for over a millennia, such as the simple method of burning wood for fuel. Other traditional methods used throughout the developing world include using conventional feed such as maize, wheat, sunflowers, and switchgrass for combustion that are then used for cooking, heating, and lighting.

Modern bioenergy used for fuel can be more complex, taking advantage of residue, bacteria, and other organic components of waste that produce a higher value energy carrier, meaning they are more efficient and versatile than traditional methods. The most common method for converting biomass into fuel is by combustion that generates heat. Other known methods include gasification, extraction, and fermentation (used for converting starch or sugar crops into ethanol). In recent decades ethanol and other forms of biofuels have increased in popularity due to the fluctuation of oil prices, carbon emission, and as an option for rural development.

Photo Credit: Prof. Thomson Sinkala, Chairman, Biofuels Association of Zambia

So are biofuels the answer for connecting rural communities with the greater world? Let’s weigh some notable advantages and disadvantages:

PROS

+ Biofuels are locally harvested, decreasing transportation costs.

+ The harvesting and processing of biofuels creates local jobs.

+ Biofuels are renewable.

+ Plants used for making biofuels can be grown on marginal lands.

+ The cost of renewable energy technology is falling, making energy projects more affordable and easier to maintain.

CONS

– Not all biofuels are sustainable.

– Traditional forms of bioenergy can cause unpleasant consequences such as deforestation.

– Traditional biofuels are highly inefficient when compared to fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

– Biofuels derived from vegetation require a lot of water, adding pressure to an already limited and fragile source.

– Instead of using limited arable land for food production, it’s used for growing biomass that can be improperly fertilized, further harming water systems.

– It can negatively impact life-cycles, species health, and biodiversity.

So are biofuels a good or bad solution for rural areas? The decision must be made at the local level; weighing costs, benefits, and sustainability. Below are examples of successful projects where biofuels are used to supply power.

Indonesia–  Instead of depositing livestock waste in waterways, it  is processed in a biodigester, creating biogas used by the local population.

China – Rice ‘straw’, the stem and leaves left behind after harvesting to be burnt can be mixed with an alkaline solution to create biogas.

Mali– Jatropha, a poisonous weed used to keep away grazing animals thrives in marginal soil is used to power generators.

Kenya– Solar and hydro energy is used for a power center that provides access to Internet and mobile phones for local farmers.


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The World Bank Launches e-Sourcebook on Ag.

E-Sourcebook cover

Photo Credit: The World Bank

The official launch of the World Bank’s  e-Sourcebook, “ICT in Agriculture: Connecting Smallholders to Knowledge, Networks and Institutions” took place at the premises of the Bank on Wednesday January 18 2012, with a number of activities.

Among these activities was a panel discussion on the key modules in the book moderated by Mark E. Cackler, the Manger of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank. Members of the panel included Willem Janssen, the Lead Agriculture Specialist in the Latin America and Caribbean Region; Laurent Besancon, Senior Regulatory Specialist in charge of ICT portfolio for the Sub-Saharan Africa region; Tuukka Castren, Senior Forest Specialist at the Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) department of the Bank; Aparajita Goyal, an Economist at the Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD); and Shaun Ferris, Senior Technical Advisor for Agriculture and Environment at Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

Introducing the book, Tim Kelly, the Lead ICT Policy Specialist in the ICT unit of the Bank stated clearly that the e-Sourcebook is neither academic paper, a report nor cookbook for use. However, it provides development practitioners and governments with examples of where ICT in agriculture has been used, challenges and lessons learned using ICT, and guidelines on project development. It also attempts to address how ICT can be mainstreamed into agricultural interventions, research and entrepreneurship.

A Science Advisor at the Agriculture and Rural Development Department at the Bank, Eija Pehu shared some of the key findings and themes from the book. This includes the need to focus on the demand for services but not on the technology, understanding the users and their demands, providing the enabling environment, exploring sustainable business models, being aware of differential impacts of ICT projects such as gender, age and socio-economic status of the users, and recognizing that smart and higher capacity tools are becoming more affordable.

The highlight of the panel presentation featured an interesting mobile application demonstrated by Shaun Ferris from CRS that is being used for data collection, monitoring and assessment by agricultural field workers to share information and report to the main office. iFormBuilder is currently being used by Catholic Relief Services in a number of remote communities to facilitate data sharing and reporting.

Questions and Answer Session

Two main themes that emerged during the Q&A session were the need to i) identify and show evidence for the impacts of these ICT applications in agriculture on the socio-economic status and livelihood conditions of the farmers; and ii) look more into innovative ways of using ICTs to increase productivity of farmers in addition to the current emphasis on market information systems. It was pointed out that while the e-Sourcebook has good examples of each of the two above areas, more need to be done.

Also a number of academic and research institutes are currently working with some of the ICT projects to understand the relationship between ICTs use by local farmers and improvement in their socio-economic conditions. The conclusion, however, was that it is going to be a difficult task identifying this relationship looking at the number of ways by which the farmers use a given ICT. For example a mobile phone may be used to check weather updates, as an alarm clock, a clock to inform farmers about when to leave for home, make phone calls, check emails, etc.

The Structure of the Book

Organized into 4 main themes and 15 modules:

Section One (Introduction) covers topics like ICT in Agricultural Development (Module 1); Making ICT Infrastructure, Appliances and Services More Accessible and Affordable in Rural Areas (Module 2); Anywhere, Anytime – Mobile Devices and Their Impact on Agriculture and Rural Development (Module 3); and Extending the Benefits: Gender Equitable-ICT Enabled Agricultural Development (Module 4).

Section Two (Enhancing Productivity on the Farm) includes Increasing Crop, Livestock and Fishery Productivity Through ICT (Module 5); ICTs As Enablers of Agricultural Innovation Systems (Module 6); Broadening Smallholders’ Access to Financial Services Through ICTs (Module 7); and Farmer Organizations Work Better with ICT (Module 8).

The Third Section (Assessing Markets and Value Chains) addresses issues of Strengthening Agricultural Marketing with ICT (Module 9); ICT Applications for Smallholder Inclusion in Agribusiness Supply Chains (Module 10); ICT Applications for Agricultural Risk Management (Module 11); and Global Markets, Global Challenges: Improving Food Safety and Traceability While Empowering Smallholders Through ICT (Module 12).

The Fourth and Final Section (Improving Public Service Provision) covers Strengthening Rural Governance, Institutions, and Citizen Participation Through ICT (Module 13); ICT for Land Administration and Management (Module 14) and Using ICT to Improve Forest Governance (Module 15).

What Next at the Bank?

The Bank will be looking into the operational challenges of some of these ICTs applications identified in the book, develop regional task force to follow-up with the progress, and also continue to organize online fora on selected topics in the book, the first of which took place in December 2011 on “Strengthening Agricultural Marketing with ICT.“

The e-Sourcebook is freely available here.

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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.

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Reflections on mAg. Services: Mistakes and Pitfalls of MNOs/NGOs

Photo Credit: HD Guru

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

Question 6: What are some of the common mistakes or pitfalls mobile operators or NGOs run into when developing these services?

Below is a quick summary of the contributions from the forum.

Building “FOR” Users: The first post to the question raised an interesting point by arguing that when the MNOs and NGOs have the goal to develop the service “for” the user without understanding the needs of the users and involving them, usually leads to a failure. Citing Richard Heeks, the post explained that in order to avoid these pitfalls, MNOs/NGOs first need to i) identify the development objective of the project/service; ii) identify the new and/or re-engineered information requirements needed to meet those objectives; and iii) identify the role that ICTs and other information-handling technologies have to play in meeting those information requirements.

A related post from a software developer agreed with the point and argued that ICT software or application development should be a user-centric approach, whereby developers collaborate and work closely with users or some categories of stakeholders.

Putting All Bets on Mobile Phones: A second mistake pointed out was, when NGOs and other development/commercial projects put all their bets on mobile phones. Like any other technology, mobile phones are “effect multiplier” and it only works when there is an underlying robust system (either an agro-advisory or private extension) which in effects get multiplied. If there is no underlying system or process and mobile phones are just introduced, as a magic bullet, it seldom works.

Lack of Understanding the Complexities with Content: Most often MNOs especially underestimate the complexities associated with sourcing and aggregating content, and designing the content management system that can meet farmer’s localized content needs but at the same time scalable.

Failure to Design Services for Scale: Another pitfall that is linked to scale is ensuring that services are designed from the start to enable scale – such as using efficient technologies, working with partners who have existing assets such as marketing and distributing capabilities so you can reach a large number of farmers cost-effectively.

Ignoring the Trust Factor: Utility VAS needs high degree of “trust factor” in the user’s mind in order to make the user stick-on to the service even if it does not bring in any instant benefit to them. A case in point is IKSL service in India, which is backed up with the goodwill of IFFCO, the largest and most preferred fertilizer supplier in India.

MNOs Using Traditional Marketing Channels for Farmers: The marketing channels of mobile agricultural services need to be different from a conventional entertainment VAS. Conventional promotions like push SMS or Out Bound Diallers (OBD) not necessarily convince a farmer to subscribe to a mobile agro-advisory. Alternative channels, like affiliation to farmers groups, bundling with agri-inputs, customization to contract farming etc. are some of the innovative approaches which have been tried in India.

Focusing only on Information Service: MNOs and NGOs also need to design their services keeping in mind that information alone does not solve all problems of farmers. An information-service which links various service delivery agents like, agri-input marketers, warehouses, laboratories etc. will have better attractiveness for farmers in comparison to simple information push.

Problem of Distinguishing between Demand Analysis and Needs Assessment: One problem that NGOs have that MNOs usually don’t have is distinguishing between a demand analysis and needs assessment. NGOs often conduct needs assessment which documents what farmers say they need but it does not have the discipline needed in a business analysis. If NGOs are to provide such services, they need to prioritize features that they will provide and sort out which are valuable enough for someone to pay for.

Sources of Funding for NGOs: NGOs are often funded by donors on a project basis.  This can easily drive them to a project orientation, especially when donors call for “success stories” and do not have the incentive nor the process to follow up after a project to see if a service they have supported is continuing and scaling.

NGOs for Development versus MNOs for Business

There was a concern about why the question under discussion had grouped MNOs and NGOs together since their perspectives and the pitfalls they face may be quite different. Interestingly, there was a contribution that separated these two areas and then grouped NGOs together with the development sector and MNOs together with business/private sector. While some of the responses also grouped the mistakes and pitfalls accordingly, others combined them.

NGOs Taking One-Sided Stand: A contributor sharing his experience pointed out that mostly people in development sector (NGOs) take a one-sided stand, when it comes to developing services for people. While it is very important to design services that would deliver certain benefits to the community from pure development point of view, it is also very important to see how the same benefits will continue to reach the community even after the development intervention has stopped. This call for a business case for development work and many NGO-s and development agencies do not consider this as a key factor while designing mobile services.

MNOs Taking One-Sided Stand: Mobile Network Operators also make mistake by considering agro-advisory services to operate on the same principles of other value added services (mVAS) like entertainment or news. While the target customer segments for both may be same, the decision factors for subscribing to such services are completely different.

Other common mistakes that MNOs/ NGOs make are:

  • Not profiling the customers
  • Not properly identifying the information needs of customers
  • Wrong customer acquisition – customer not having interest in the service
  • Extending services where network is not strong
  • Content not having relevance to the local conditions
  • Not being fully aware of the telecom regulation policies of their geographic area.

NB: This is the final in series of six post on the subject “Reflections on Mobile Agricultural Services”. The earlier posts can be located through the links below:

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

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

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