Mobile Mobility
Mobiles plays an important role in providing developmental aspects in the rural areas. There exists a wrong notion that mobiles are more useful. But it's a fact in the developing and under developed countries that mobile telephony is much more useful in rural ares rather than in urban areas. The useful of mobile telephony in rural areas would be on the following grounds: (1) Provides information of infrastructural facilities (2) Using of new technology and scientific implements in agriculture (3) Learning process of new skill and training (4) Immediate stepts to solve the natural disaster problems (5) Using international level knowledge based materials for development etc., Hence, I strongly propose that rural areas should be benefited more from the mobile telphony aspects. For better and more efficient use of mobile telphony, the following measures can be taken up: (1) New invention and innovation strategies (2) Development of cost-minimized mobile instruments (3) More network in rural areas (4) Agricultural based information (5) Information about new seeds, fertilizers and pesticides (6) Role of farmers in rural development process etc.,
Dr Kumar, thank you for this concise input. Very interesting issues to consider. At this point we are looking for success factors in existing programmes, as well as to share information about the people and concepts involved. From the applications you have mentioned can you point to any examples of this? Or if you are proposing the way forward, bravo, but this is jumping ahead of the rest of us - can we hold your comments for later in the forum when we will discuss the way forward? Michael (FAO)
Dr. Kumar I think Micheal is right, you are now in the way forward, you know sometimes we forgot the socio-cultural inclusion into a social development process. We are now in the information age, and we can not deny that in every development struggle there will be always an advantage and disadvantage results. Let's try to examine at what extent this infrastructure can help our rural farmers or the whole community involve for development, because even until now I am still conducting research and try to find out what will be the most appropriate approaches that will precisely facilitate development depending on the socio cultural practices of the community. Thank you and I am still waiting for any openion, or presentation of factual evidence that will precisely put of all us in a good plotform.
I would like to suggest that e-agriculture is very important for all agriculturists in the world. Let me suggest that farmers need to come together and create unions and cooperatives and build an information base. This can be implemented by building data networks or databases in which all agricultural information and statistics can be stored. This helps to monitor the trends in infrastructural differences, prices and market forces e.g Demand and supply for particular goods and products. Mobile telephony will help greatly in accessing information from partners, funders, donors and other stake holders in the business. Mobile telephony would ease information sharing and communication. Mobile telephony will not improve agriculture if it is used on an individual farmer basis but rather by an organized agricultural community or organization of farmers with background infrastructure that calls for data and information storage that would be communicated using mobile telephony.
Hi Collins. I like your point about the importance of communities and organizations! (This is why there was a demand to form the e-Agriculture Community, people realized that the full benefit of ICT would no be realized in isolation.) Can you point us to any examples of community-led use of mobile phones in rural areas? Thanks, Michael (FAO)