All about access:Content & technology strategies for smallholders

Philip Abrahams, Strategic Business Development Director, CABI

Is the mAgri hype dealing yet with fundamentals?

Classic farmer challenges

Productivity- Crop loss (climatic, biotic etc)- Access to (& affordability of) inputs- Diminished landholding

Prosperity- Access to fair markets- Lack of knowledge & skills, plus literacy barriers- Thinning extension support

Quality of life- Poverty trap- Malnutrition & healthcare- Gender inequalities

An operator’s perspective

Why mAgri?

Access to new markets:

130m new subscribers per annum in Developing Countries, increasingly rural

– Business growth (money)– Customer retention (money)– Repeat usage (money)– Add-on services (money)

It’s Business, not Emotion

Agriculture must compete in MNOs heads against other equally seductive feature-specific services

A farmer’s perspective

Why mAgri?

Access to supportive content which is: – Immediate (crisis handling)– Just in time (task- and time-based)– Relevant (localised)– Demand-driven (personalised)– Holistic (comprehensive)– Accessible(actionable, voice)– Interactive (feedback, call centres)– Objective (trust)– ‘Business’-based (access to inputs, credit etc)– Market-focussed (money)

Farmers will only pay for a service that they value

Questions for us all

Issues

Do farmers understand what we tell them?– Do they act on the advice given?– Is the advice they get contradictory?

Do we really know what they want?– local conditions; crops grown and constraining factors– pest presence/diagnostics; proximity alerts– farm size; soil health; irrigation methods– animal husbandry; nutrition/health advice– seed selection; input availability; financial services– something else??

Who provides quality assurance?– Are there farmer feedback mechanisms?

Who manages data collection & analysis?

Content which is present at some level

Generally, what is missing?

– Weather– Market prices, locations– GAP advice– Crop health, pests and disease (limited crops only)– Animal husbandry– Alerts– Calendar-based advice– mFinance– Sellers’ market approach

Content which is often absent or rare

Generally, what is missing?

– Production standards (private)– Multiple crops– Phytosanitary standards– Soil husbandry– Hyper-localised/geo-specific– Community-based learning– Access to labour saving tech– Access to input suppliers– Buyers’ market approach: farmer-power

Generally, what is missing?

Farmers need more than prices, weather…

Farmers

Credit & Insurance

Input Availability

Pest Management

Market Link

New Technology

Favorable Policy

D2F Infomediary

Policy Makers

Input Business

Rural Service

Providers

Agri-Markets

Food Processors

Research & Academia

Info syndication

Info delivery

…and content needs holistic partnerships

Giving access requires content…

Agriculture Research

Extension Knowledge

Package of Practices

Crop/Animal Factsheets

New Research Info

• e.g. CAB Abstracts

• Compendia• Other public

domain repositories

Extensio

n Knowled

ge

• University Literature

• Crop Directorates• Extension

Publications

Factsheet

s

• Crop Specific• Based on critical

information needs• CABI Expertise• Farmer feedback

Who is doing what?

– Farmer profiling & info share– FBO comms– Predicting input use– Linking dealers– Cost of production– Data collection

(market prices etc)

www.imagead.net

CABI Direct2Farm: Café Móvel

Who is doing what?

Targeting coffee planters, processors, roasters and exporters– Features include:– Interactive Message Wall on IVR– Private discussion thread between planter and expert– Voice-Cast of private discussion thread to community– Market & Agrimet voice feeds– Mobinar between planters and experts

For further information:

Thank you

www.cabi.org

Phil Abrahams

T: 0044 1491 829374

p.abrahams@cabi.org