Question 1 (opens 25 Nov.) What are the main achievements in the area of ICT for agriculture and rural development...

As backpack farm points out, the ultimate sustainable design in the incorporation of all stakeholders (agribusinessmen, farmers, coops, ag advisors, etc etc)  into a national (or otherwise large-scale) network of exchange of goods.  But, as John points out, some communities are so excluded from the existing network that they perhaps don't even know what possibilities exist.  Therefore, I suggest that the role of development is to ultimately foster those connections and, as John says, prepare the un(der)served for capable participation in said network.  This is well articulated in two of kiringai: 

1. How do we link market dynamics that can ensure value chain actors: producers, service providers who include the youth with their m-apps, and consumers who will link directly with sources of produce rather than relying on middlemen whose value add is derived from information asymmetry or distance.
2. Can logistics networks use more of the m-apps to reduce distances to delivering produce to consumers and what considerations are necessary to achieve such....

Hi everyone. Great discussion going here. I want to make a few comments as moderator:

- It's clear mobiles are successfully entering rural communities, but remember to indicate the role that they play. (Megan, for example, had a point about direct communication.)

- If it's useful, characterize the type of farmer you refer to. Useful distinctions might be not only between farmers in developing countries vs. those in developed countries, but also farmers of commerical crops, small scale farmers, and those only producing food for their own subsistence.

- We're not only interested in farmers, but also fisherfolk, agribusiness (from input suppliers to middle men), cooperatives and other organizations, natural resoruce custodians, etc.

Thanks!

Radio is neither new or glamourous, but it has been both utilized by and enabled by ICT for ag development in very important ways in the past few years.  

 It has almost no associated cost, requires no literacy, and is already widely used and available.  In fact, radio is used by an even larger percentage of the developing world than mobile phones.  

Of course, the long-standing limiting factor of radio in communication is that is it has traditionally been a one-way channel.  Mobile phone technology and a host of service providers have recently broken down this barrier.

Service providers such as FrontlineSMS and Esoko have enabled small radio broadcasters to successfully manage communication with massive numbers of listeners.  Organizations such as Farm Radio Int'l link various stakeholders together to provide quality radio services.  

As a result, small local radio stations have become potent hubs of information exchange within the larger community.

A single example of ICT "success" is Salam Watandar in Afghanistan.   This station puts ag experts on the air several times a week, and returns farmer's "missed calls" to respond to their queries. The station tracks these queries and general reports from farmers and are in the process of creating a map based on that data to help predict where future agricultural "events" (drought, infestations, etc) are likely to occur.  Furthermore,  SW relays to the community the commitement made by the Ministry of Ag in the Ministry's periodic reports.  Then, they utilize stakeholder feedback to hold the Ministry of Agriculture accountable for the commitements they've made.  This is a great example of an NGO fostering connections between various stakeholders in the national community in ways that create symbiosis and empower everyone involved.

Megan, your point on the relevance of Radio as a dissemination media is also true in the context of the Pacific island countries.  As seen from inputs of ICT4D practitioners in the Pacific (extracted from a yet-to-be-published FAO publication on Status and Strategies on ICT4D)

Radio remains a viable and cost-effective medium for disseminating information on agriculture and rural development to the Pacific’s remote and geographically challenged islands. Radio provides up to 90 percent coverage in most Pacific island countries, and is the most common way that most rural communities receive information. However, lack of funds for programming and poor reception in very remote islands can hinder the use of radio for communication.

Fiji and Kiribati at a recent meeting in Nadi in 2010 clearly indicated in their country presentations that radio is the ideal medium for communication, given both countries’ many scattered outer islands.

The case for continuing to use radio for mass communication is made because of its portability, inexpensiveness, accessibility, extensive reach (even in remote areas) and longevity. It is especially effective in rural and remote areas where television and print media have not been able to penetrate.

Radio and other forms of media play a key role in bringing agricultural information to poor, rural communities. Vanuatu has five radio programmes every week on agriculture ranging from market information to talk-back shows covering agriculture, fisheries, livestock and quarantine. Kiribati airs an agricultural radio programme fortnightly and Tonga has three agricultural radio programmes each week. Similarly Samoa has a twice-weekly agricultural radio programme airing in the evenings, and repeated on the following day.

‘Walkabout’ radio was a very popular format in the 1990s in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. As the name indicates, the programme hosts visit the farmers’ fields and chat with the farmers going about their daily chores such as fixing a broken-down tractor, discussing symptoms of a pest problem or transplanting seedlings. Listeners are taken on an audio experience of the farm work with a real-time soundtrack as the farmer goes about his business. Staffing and equipment constraints forced this popular format to close down.

Community radio with a specific focus, uncommon in the Pacific, has a targeted audience and is usually an extension of the special interest group it represents. Strictly donor funded it has limited coverage of development issues and a narrow audience base. But it is very effective in disseminating knowledge on special interest groups and serving their information needs. By broadening its focus, community radio can reach a wider spectrum of the rural audience with development information.
 

I cannot agree more on the importance of linking radio and mobile. It is imho a perfect fit with a broadcast media that can reach everybody at low-cost. Then mobile is the perfect feedback loop to provide personalized services to people, or allow them to contribute to radio programs.
Now I would be happy to know if anybody has implemented such scenarios in m-agri?
While working in Mali (tominian district), we have designed such an approach, but at the end fo the day we had to go far far beyond our original objectives, because we foud out that integrating radio broadcast in the ecosystem is not that easy, and here again, technology was sligthly a problem. The provision of audio content to radio was very difficult due to lots of radio not having any computer (sometimes) or no connectivity at all (most of the time). So originally we had to walk to the radio with usb keys, which was killing the overall process. To improve this we had to work vrey closely with the radio and design a dedicated paltform using voice tech for them to be able to call-in and broadcast live through the mobile phone the content. At the end, this was very successful, but not planned at all.
Just to say that in my experience integrating radio was not as easy as it seemed, particularly when you want to cover a whole with different stations that are far away each other.
I'm wondering if other people/initiative have experienced similar challenges?

steph 

The FAO’s Avian Influenza information system used in Bangladesh extensively uses mobile technology to track the outbreak of the deadly avian (H5N1) virus in a resource deficient country. Short message services (SMS) were used to collect and manage information from a large number of grassrootslevel volunteers, thereby enabling a coordinated and real-time response to contain the outbreak. This showed how mobile technology could be used for active surveillance systems.

More information is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEj0gVV44V0

Mobile phones are not only used as a delivery medium but also as a node to collect data, which is then processed by a centralized unit to produce information services. Examples also include the system in the Philippines for price and stock information gathering by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics using an open-source system from Nokia.

Similarly, the Govi Gnana Seva NGO in Sri Lanka uses mobile phones to collect price information
that is recorded and made available in real time. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention set up a mobile phone emergency reporting system that takes about two to three minutes for a trained person to report a possible epidemic-related case.

Generally, the limitations of mobile phone displays in terms of size and textbased systems restrict the collection of advisory types of information. However, text used in combination with voice-based information seems to offer effective options for an advisory information exchange.

Gerardsylvester, this is a very interesting point.  I wonder if devices themselves are the best way to collect project impact data from users as well.  Do you think this holds potential?  If so, what are the obstacles?  Three that come to my mind are 1) as you mention, limitations of the device 2) user objectivity 3) user motivation to complete survey.  

From the Malawian experience of using cellphones through sms to collect data and to send extension information on crops and livestock but also market price information targeting  smallholders and extension agents; the following have been our lessons:- 1. Incentives in particular airtime is needed to get them to send data
2. Most smallholders even though literate have had challenges composing text, or being able to know when their message box is full e.t.c hence training has to include basic use of a cellphones which is often overlooked.
3. Most smallholders tend to sell their simcards with the handset especially in lean months hence the need for continued subsidization on the fact that they wont access information they receive if they give up their number
4. Regardless of the fact that women smallholders do most of the farm work and have to know about extension information; their male counterparts have more access to cellphones and it has been learnt that the men do not share this information with their wives and in some group discussions it was also clear that even if a couple would easily afford a $10 phone for the woman the men didn't think it was necessary to let the woman have one.
5. Women are denied access to market price information that comes through cellphones as marketing volumes is considered a man's domain. Infact women are more involved in spot sales in low quantities that some men consider women to 'steal' grain to sell hence some men dont want to share the market info that they receive on their cellphones.
In general these deployments have to consider more than just the technology itself or the content but also other dynamics as stipulated above that relate to the target audience.
Best

We have experienced mixed results from different kinds of e-Agriculture initiatives in Bangladesh and the e-Krishok (Electronic Farmer) initiative of Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development is one of the success cases till now. The major feartures of e-Krishok are -

1. The Inclusive Business Model : The service has been designed in such a form that the poor and remotest farmer can be served by using ICT tools like mobile phone.  

2. Sustainability and Scaling up : Embedding the service with different services like integrating in a running project or embed as VAS for inputs like pesticides, seed, feeds (Poultry and Fishery) and fertilizers, so that when the farmer buy the input, s/he is getting the e-Krishok service too within the sam price. Due to the partnerships with DAE, Telecom Operators and Input companies, its easy to scale at larger farmer groups.

3. Bundling of services : e-Krishok covers extension to market linkage service to cater as a bundle of services.

4. Innovation : To respond the farmers need and technological changes, innovation has become the most important actor to make e-Krishok successful. BIID started with targeting the access to information issue, but now developed mobile based solutions and introduced markt linkage service.

Please visit us at www.biid.org.bd and www.e-krishok.com for further info.

Regards,
Shahid 

Dear Colleagues,
 
We suggest to discuss potential of ICT in analytical procedures in agriculture. To date this question had not received much attention.

The basis of ICT using in analytical tests for modern agricultural and environmental technologies is founded by following facts.

First, most of cell phones are equipped with digital still camera (DSC). Costs of such cameras are substantially decreasing with time, while their quality is increasing. In many recent works performance of cell phone DSC was demonstrated to be sufficient for several analytical methods for colorimetric determination of many metabolites, nutrient compounds and environmental contaminants. Most of these methods initially were developed for telemedicine in regions with poor resources and demonstrated their effectiveness.

Second, effectiveness of such methods is synergically increased when they are combined with green analytical chemistry (GAC) approach. This modern approach is based on less consumption of analytical reagents due to investigation the substances immobilized on solid media, usually on paper, thus increasing the sensitivity of determination. This decreases volumes of reagents (“Green”) and subsequently the costs of analysis. GAC approach can be easily combined with colorimetry by digital analysis of spots images obtained with DSC.

Third, digital images can be obtained in the field and transferred to laboratory by means of ICT for detailed analysis. Also results can be quickly delivered back to the remote site of sampling, thus providing effective feedback, possibly with several interactions. Images can be transferred via Internet if available from provider, or even via MMS service.

We used colorimetry approach as quantitative measurement of color stimulus for determination of the range of physiological and ecological parameters of agricultural plants. Our result demonstrated effectiveness of determination of natural pigments (phenolic compounds and carotenoids) in different plant specimens both in vivo and in vitro, indicators of plant stress caused by heavy metals and herbicides, accumulation of Ni, Pb, Cd in plant tissue.

Thus, digital image analysis combined with “green” analytical methods and ICT technologies should be considered as effective analytical approaches for lots of environmental and agricultural applications.
 
Sergiy Shemet, Volodimir Fedenko
Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology,
Dnipropetrovsk National University, Ukraine