KM using ICTs in agricultural and rural development in Africa

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


Main stakeholder groups
as users of ICT in agriculture:

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


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.


Applications in agricultural value chains
Cropster /
Muddy-Boots
Brainhoney MPESA - Esoko Opp Esoko Mob
/ Esoko Farmbook
Training $$ /RL MIS Bank Reuters Trans
calculators
Farmbook Esoko / RL Reuters/ Digital SMS Financial
calculators AMITSA Farm-radio Green voice flows

Swiss Re
WI

Pre-production Production Postharvest Marketing

Market price
Market Production Marketing decisions
planning tips decisions
SM Biz
Best Best performance
Practices Practices Transport
Product
MIS and Feedback Storage Bulking
Inputs Polls
Traceability
Production Finance
Finance
Finance
Chain wide
Insurance
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal Market Linkage

Less than 10% of all projects have become
sustainable, and even fewer are reaching
scale.
Type of Organization Project Project
Implementer Partner/Funder

International 11 39
Organization
Local/National NGO 25 6

Government 9 6
Department/Agency

National Agricultural 4 3
Research Centre

Private Company 3 10


Desperately seeking content

Content
Content
&
Content


Written/Text-based Projects

Benefits Costs
• Provides useful resources
• Requires a basic level of literacy
Web-based solutions
• Can provide pictorial illustrations Web-based solutions
• Can provide lengthy, detailed
explanations • Entails ploughing through many
publications
SMS • Often unreliable internet connectivity
• Can be Customised for language • Limited access to and ability to use
• Cell phone use rapidly expanding
throughout the continent 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
Benefits Costs
• Can be easily customised for language
• Readily accessible and easy to use IVR
• Costly to develop
IVR • Complicated: requires machines to
• Can provide ready researched and produce good speech synthesis
prepared answers for commonly asked
questions • Often does not provide detailed info
such as pictorial illustrations
Video-based solutions
• Can provide demonstrations
Video-based solutions
Call Centres • Costly to produce
• Can receive feedback from professionals • Many lack the equipment to view the
immediately info

Call Centres
• Call congestion
Allo Ingenier Call
Centre, Cameroon • Often requires follow-up if info is not
currently available


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 innovation
The 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.


Example 1: TECA

“Agricultural information services should be platform-
independent, given that technology-specific services impose
requirements on potential audiences and can greatly limit
accessibility”


Example 2: eRAILS

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


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


Example 4: Video

• 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


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 24
International research &
development 81 16
International NGO 64 13
National or local NGO 55 11
Extension service 39 8
Radio 24 5
Food industry 23 5
Farmer organization 19 4
Communication enterprise 12 2
Other
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT November 28-29, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal 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 25
I 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


KM using ICTs in agricultural and rural development in Africa

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