KM using ICTs in agricultural and rural development in Africa

The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal

KM using ICTs in agricultural and rural development in Africa

François STEPMAN

PAEPARD co-manager

Agrinatura/Paris


http://paepard.blogspot.be


1. Businesses: businesses, associations, other organizations

2. Farmers: individuals; organized and informal associations

3. Researchers: researchers; educators; trainers

4. Government: Ministry of Agriculture; departments; parastatals

Main stakeholder groups as users of ICT in agriculture:


ICT in agriculture

• The World Bank, in collaboration with the e-Agriculture community and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is holding a series of two week online forums.

• (17-28 Sept 2012) Using ICT to enable Agricultural Innovation Systems for Smallholders

• (12-23 Nov 2012) ICT and producer organizations


The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) analyzed 60 farmer advisory services in Africa that are currently operating or recently terminated.

Countries : Benin; Burkina Faso; Cameroon; Egypt; Ethiopia; Ghana; Kenya; Malawi; Mali; Niger; Nigeria; Senegal; South Africa; Tanzania; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe and 10 projects operating in more than 3 countries.


Farmbook calculators

Mob Trans

Opp Bank

Applications in agricultural value chains

Pre-production Production Postharvest Marketing

Market planning

MIS and Inputs

Finance

Farmbook calculators

BrainhoneyTraining

EsokoEsoko

/

Reuters

Esoko /RL MIS

Digital Green

SMSvoice

Cropster /Muddy-Boots

Esoko / RLAMITSA

MPESA - $$

Production tips

Transport

FinanceProductionFinance

Marketing decisions

Reuters/Farm-radio

Feedback Polls

Market price decisions

Storage

Chain wide Market Linkage

Best Practices

Best Practices Product

Bulking

SM Biz performance

Financial flows

Insurance

Swiss Re WI

Traceability


Less than 10% of all projects have become sustainable, and even fewer are reaching

scale.Type of Organization Project

ImplementerProject

Partner/Funder

International Organization

11 39

Local/National NGO 25 6

Government Department/Agency

9 6

National Agricultural Research Centre

4 3

Private Company 3 10


ContentContent&

Content

Desperately seeking content


Written/Text-based Projects

Benefits• Provides useful resources

Web-based solutions• Can provide pictorial illustrations• Can provide lengthy, detailed

explanations

SMS• Can be Customised for language• Cell phone use rapidly expanding

throughout the continent

Costs• Requires a basic level of literacy

Web-based solutions• Entails ploughing through many

publications• Often unreliable internet connectivity• Limited access to and ability to use

computers among many rural populations

• Often not updated regularly

SMS• Contains only a small amount of

information

Zambian National Farmers’ Union SMS Service, IFAD


Voice-based Projects

Costs

IVR• Costly to develop• Complicated: requires machines

to produce good speech synthesis

• Often does not provide detailed info such as pictorial illustrations

Video-based solutions• Costly to produce• Many lack the equipment to

view the info

Call Centres• Call congestion• Often requires follow-up if info is

not currently available

Benefits

• Can be easily customised for language

• Readily accessible and easy to use

IVR• Can provide ready researched and

prepared answers for commonly asked questions

Video-based solutions• Can provide demonstrations

Call Centres• Can receive feedback from

professionals immediately

Allo Ingenier Call Centre, Cameroon


Key Challenges of Agricultural Knowledge management in Africa using ICT

• Millions of farmers want customized information, most do not get it

• Customized = up-to-date, relevant and supplied in a timely manner

• Most farmers expect free services, which needs to change

• Using value chain information requires a learning process for farmers and that takes time

• Doubts about the appropriate methodology for researching the impact of ICT on agricultural development


Recommendations (1)

Great progress in ICT solutions, but how many agricultural extension services are using these methods?

Need to find best fit options to shift from traditional delivery channels and ICT-enabled channels

Must focus on scale to achieve cost recovery and value added

Need better public-private partnerships

Effectiveness compared to other approaches?Need more return on investment studies to highlight the value of ICT-enabled approaches


Recommendations (2)

Role of ICT in disseminating innovationThe key for development actors is to understand the traditional process of farmer innovation in order to succeed in bringing ICT in line to support this.

Communities themselves will also drive this through their own choices around technology and its application.

Donor funding is being tied to “uptake”, which is measured on delivery, not demand for or application of information

private sector investment at the venture, incubation and growth stages could lead to more robust, sustainable innovation in this sector.


“Agricultural information services should be platform-independent, given that technology-specific services impose

requirements on potential audiences and can greatly limit accessibility”

Example 1: TECA


“Paying 4 incentives to get online content is not sustainable in the long term”

Example 2: eRAILS


Example 3: www.infonet-biovision.org

• Pictorial illustrations are attempts to overcome constraints of written work

• Rollover function increases users friendliness : information pops up when the cursor is moved over a photo


• Growing interest in extension• Attention to farmer innovation• More organizations want to enhance their impact

at regional level• Many service providers have expressed their

interest in using quality videos

Example 4: Video


Video solutions: futuristic mobile?

• Flexibility in use• Compact discs for easy dissemination• Rural radio stations and networks• Private sector• Television• Mobile phones• Video viewing clubs• Busses• Special events• Quality video enables multiple uses


Respondents to survey on video use (n=505; Source: Agro-Insight, 2011)

Number %National research & university 119 24International research & development 81 16International NGO 64 13National or local NGO 55 11Extension service 39 8Radio 24 5Food industry 23 5Farmer organization 19 4Communication enterprise 12 2Other 69 14


Frequency of searching web for training videos, (n=442 Agro-Insight, 2011)


Frequency of use of video to train farmers (n=448)


Reasons for not or rarely using video (n=166, Agro-Insight, 2011)

Number %

I don't know where to look for videos 59 25I haven’t found videos on the right subject 39 16

I haven’t found videos in local language 54 23

Other 86 36


Importance of local language of video (n=438, Agro-Insight, 2011)

)But limiting to local language versions

alone inhibits global sharing and use for

farmer training


Across countries, crops often have common plant health issues and solutions.


Agricultural training videos

Technology

KM using ICTs in agricultural and rural development in Africa