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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
http://paepard.blogspot.be
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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:
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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.
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
ContentContent&
Content
Desperately seeking content
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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.
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
“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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
“Paying 4 incentives to get online content is not sustainable in the long term”
Example 2: eRAILS
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
• 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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
Frequency of searching web for training videos, (n=442 Agro-Insight, 2011)
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
Frequency of use of video to train farmers (n=448)
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
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
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
Across countries, crops often have common plant health issues and solutions.
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal
Agricultural training videos