المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

Dear FSN Moderator,

Thanks for this privilege. It was interesting for me to participate in the FSN forum on the above topic.

Here are my further contributions to question 2: "How can the establishment of the Digital Council address the numerous barriers to adoption of these technologies?":

Establishment of an international digital council for Food and Agriculture is a great step forward to enhancing food security, especially in the face of the current global climate change challenges. However, to make major impacts in developing countries such as Nigeria, I hereby suggest that:

1. Gender experts should be involved at all the stages, to avoid or alleviate gender digital divides, which could hinder improvement in food production and security;

2. FSN and FAO should sponsor gender-responsive e-agricultural extension and rural advisory curriculum rehabilitation and integration at the tertiary level to support the bridging of the gaps between researches on ICT and adoption at the rural community levels;

3. Support capacity buildings of extension and rural advisory professionals as well as the farmers;

4. Support gender-responsive ex- ante research to analyze the existing environment for effective digital integration into agriculture in developing countries; and

5. Collaborate with local stakeholders such as Universities, Agricultural Institutes, Extension, and rural advisory institutes and agencies, Ministries of Agriculture, farmers' organizations, etc. for effective application.

Thank you.

Prof. Olanike Deji

Obafemi Awolowo University,

Ile Ife, Osun state.

Nigeria.

Thanks for a very important discussion. 

1. Potential entry points:

Root cause analysis to address challenges and foster the development of digital agriculture. 

Root causes: Demographic, Economic, Technological, Political, Institutional, and Cultural. 

a) Demographic: Inadequate digital literacy (and numeracy); inadequate new skills development; demographic dividends; digital divides, etc. 

b) Economic: Poverty, inadequate access to financial services, inadequate for and by innovation; socio economic divides (gender, digital, geographic); lack of investments (particularly in under developed countries); low affordability of new solutions; inadequate financial capacity, etc; 

c) Political: Inadequate access to information, inappropriate policies and regulations; inadequate enforcement; interference; inadequate governance; etc. 

d) Institutional: Inadequate capacity; inappropriate institutions; inadequate coordination; 

e) Cultural: Inequality (gender, age, religion, caste, status); negative teaching; abandonment of positive customs; 

2. Addressing the numerous barriers: Agriculture is valuable because of the products and services that accrue from it. The factors of production are land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship or management, etc;

When management is characterized by innovation and inclusion, then empowerment occurs. Empowerment is "enabling people to participate in development."  The pillars of empowerment are knowledge, technology and cooperation or collaboration. In an agrarian economy, empowering sector participants (stakeholders) is very important. When stakeholders are empowered, the role of ICTs in addressing the root causes of inadequate agricultural production and productivity is tremendously enhanced. 

Specifically, the following should be done:

1. Be inclusive. 

2. Be innovative. 

3. Be (digital) technology-driven.

4. Be efficient. 

5. Be effective. 

6. Be adaptive. 

7. Be sensitive. 

3. Roles identified for the Digital Council :

YES. However, the roles should be based on:

a. Supply and/or value chain analysis. 

b. Participatory assessment, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. 

4. Governance structure: As mentioned earlier, inclusion, innovation and technology are the pillars of empowerment. Apparently, the goal of the Digital Council is to uphold these pillars. The proposed governance structure looks good enough. But, it should be considered an experiment. 

What are the potential entry points for government to address challenges and foster the development of digital agriculture?

There is need to develop either toll-free lines to capture information and share information with local farmers, or have a free text messaging system because majority of farmers have access to a mobile phone, and in most communities there is someone who can either read and interprete  the message or have the message sent in the language of that particular region. Say for instance in Nigeria, information is Hausa Language is generally understood in the north, Yoruba in the West, and Igbo in the Eastern region. There are other languages depending on the region. This can be used to register farmers, share information like fertilizer availability, availability of seedlings, capacity development initiatives, latest information, at no cost to the farmers. 

UNICEF's U-Report was implemented in Nigeria some time back, am not sure about now, and it was effective to spread news, capture polls, learn from the people what is important to them, and it helped shape UNICEFs work in country. 

Also, there is the need to provide a channel where the farmers can provide feedbacks and respond.

The government could set-up a project team comprising farmers, CSOs, private sector and a small team from the government, while FAO monitors the process and holds them to account.

How can the establishment of the Digital Council address the numerous barriers to adoption of these technologies?

A digital council can address the numerous barriers to adoption of these technologies by forming a country teams with focal committee not just one focal person from the government. A farmer can connect with another farmer. There is the need for an independent team with people that can relate with the farmers on that country team.

There is the need to build local capcity of team members in-country, to manage communication with the people.  

Do you think that the roles identified for the Digital Council are suitable for facing the agrifood systems challenges outlined above?

These roles identified is great, but there is need for country or regional representation in the advisory team, and add country teams in the working groups or regional groups. What will the composition of the team be? there is the need to have a greater portion of the teams, groups to be very independent of influence by national government to get the near true picture and implementation of the project.

We can also have other donor agencies send focal persons as members of the council with observer status to report to their organizations, this will make them feel part of the council, and also strengthen coordination and build capacity of local actors.

There is also the need to build capacity of the persons and groups of persons. There is need for country, regional and sub-regional consultation to feed into the overall goal of the design.

What governance structure should be in place in order for the Council to serve its purpose?

Select independent council members from ALL the regions of the world. FAO's country office or regional offices can serve the purpose of administrative and virtual meetings.

In 2010, I was channel manager for Microsoft to manage breath partners Northern Nigeria, my line manager was in Lagos, had a colleague in Ghana, we had more of our meetings virtual, and sent activity reports from the Microsoft offices in Abuja, Nigeria, and Accra, Ghana, coordinated by our manager in Lagos, Nigeria. The team small, but had wide coverage, most of the administrative cost were managed by the country offices, and there was an upsurge of interest as more partners felt the impact of Microsoft, I even had the opportunity to host partners in the Microfsoft Office to handle technical difficulties. 

I understand that FAO can be really complex, but a similar approach could help, and besides, other multilateral agencies have their offices in-country, like the Worldbank, EU, DFID, aside the United Nations (FAO). 

Please add any other comment or relevant content you think should be included in the Concept Note.

Increasingly, organizations are relying more on independent technical expertise of inidivuals in the regions or countries that they are most needed, it saves cost, expand reach, and helps to identify local actors to improve the process. 

I will be happy to be part of the council, and will be more than happy to contribut technical skills and expertise to connect more farmers to boast food security using technology.

Currently, there are over 160 million active mobile phone lines in Nigeria, and there lies huge potential to connect more people with tools and resources to empower them towards a prosperous hunger-free, poverty alliviated future.

Digitalization is a means, not an end. Priority should have firstly to establish sustainable management of land and natural resources to achieve the dream of Sustainable Agriculture. For this FAO should give firstly priority to roll out Conservation Agriculture at a global scale. So far this sustainable farming covers only 12% of global cropland and FAO's activities in this area are marginal. The next step should be creating the technology bases, on which digitalization can meaningfully work - basic "sustainable agricultural mechanization" along with the establishment of the necessary service infrastructure, which would include digital infrastructure. Starting firstly with digitalization will be expensive, have little impact and will not make use of the full potential of digitalization.

1.What are the potential entry points for government to address challenges and foster the development of digital agriculture?

Basically, India is having agrarian economy with more than 70 percent of population depends upon agriculture and allied activities for their livelihood. Unfortunately, share of agriculture is continuoulsy declining over the years, with 15% contribution in GDP. Recently our Government is seriously making her efforts to double the farmers income. It is really a herculean task for us. If digitalisation of farm sector is succeed in our country by  making double of the farmer's income on one hand and increasing the employment in agricultural sector our country and create more and more opportunities for our youths of small land holding in this sector, on the other. Only in that  case we can say that digitalization is  getting success.

2.How can the establishment of the Digital Council address the numerous barriers to adoption of these technologies?

Following steps should be taken by Digital Council to address the numerous barriers to adoption of these technologies 

1.Wide spread Awareness programmes must be conducted in rural areas regarding digitalization of agriculture.

2.At the national level, various Regional Digital  Councils may be established at  state/district and village level.

3.Do you think that the roles identified for the Digital Council are suitable for facing the agrifood systems challenges outlined above?

- Certainly. It can play it's vital role, if the general farmer is involved to adopt and in implementation of digitalization of agriculture in our country.

4.What governance structure should be in place in order for the Council to serve its purpose?

Following Governance structure can be established 

        INTERNATIONAL LEVEL

                    -

Various International Agencies and respective National Governments

                  -

1.Different State Governments  2.NGOs   3.Private Sector 4.Different Political Groups and People 

4

It is an excellent move to establish an international digital council for food and agriculture. This will definitely help to increase agricultural productivity, improve the livelihood of farmers and also environmental sustainability especially in developing countries. Taking example my area of research, I work on beneficial microorganisms which enhance plant productivity. through several experiments we have shown that inoculation with these organisms not only improve the growth and yield of crops but also reduce environmental pollution through use of reduced quantity of fertilizers and pesticides. This fetches higher income to the farmer. Further this microbial technology also helps the nursery men to produce healthy vigorously growing seedlings which fetch him much higher price. I also like to point out that many of the agricultural technologies developed by scientists do not reach the stake holder because of gap in transfer of technologies developed. So in my opinion establishment of this international digital council will help to solve this problem. 

If the digital council is made of a well representative team who have experiences and knowledge about the digital divide in different contexts then it would be able to address the barriers. Governments should put in place a place for reporting and knowledge sharing so that lessons learnt can be shared among different contexts. 

Question 1. What are the potential entry points for government to address challenges and foster the development of digital agriculture?

Governments will need to consider potential benefits, costs and risks, and to understand the factors affecting technology uptake so that interventions can be targeted to where there is a market failure, or a public interest for digital agriculture. It is important to start with understanding how technology can help in different components of the policy cycle, and may require government bodies to expand their skillsets, invest in technology and training, or partner with other actors (both government and non-government). On the one hand, digital agriculture may create new roles or responsibilities for governments, including to enable the digital infrastructure (is there a case for governments to be a provider or a rule maker of new digital infrastructure, and under what circumstances); but on the other hand, if technology can reduce information asymmetries and transactions costs, less government intervention may be needed.

Question 2. How can the establishment of the Digital Council address the numerous barriers to adoption of these technologies?

While you address certain principles in the guide it seems that some important principles are not considered or perhaps masked. My proposal is to consider:

Reliability - The action of the Digital Council should perform reliably.

Transparency - The action of the Digital Council should be understandable and transparent.

Accountability - The action of the Digital Council should have accountability mechanisms.

Question 3: Do you think that the roles identified for the Digital Council are suitable for facing the food systems challenges outlined above?

The roles are suitable and it seems that they are based on traditional governance structures. However, while the digital council has considered ways to ensure smooth decision-making and potential work streams within the structure, it seems that there is no involvement with national focal points. If you will appoint people for every country (even digitally) than this point shall be ignored.

Question 4. What governance structure should be in place in order for the Council to serve its purpose? According to you, do you think the proposed governance scenario is politically feasible?

One important think to keep in mind when thinking about the governance structure should be Responsibility. It will be great to have some accountability governance unit – at the same level and structure as the advisory committee that will keep track and ensure implementation of whatever agenda will be set by the executive council. If something seems not right than some unit should be responsible for addressing concerns – there are always things to be improved and science and technology does not end with us! You can even assign a working groups to make sure that there will be equal access to the services and digital guidance for all members, regarding the open source tools and ensure the quality of those tools! A space should be left for citizenship and local civil organization to participate (e.g. as partners). They can best help in the process of understanding local needs and how can to create public value.

The usefulness of digital technologies relies heavily upon the availability of relevant context-specific local data. In my view, the biggest challenge to widespread and just digitalization is the investment (and largely non-digital effort) to gather data at the ground level (ie. farm surveys, individual food consumption assessments, soil sampling, etc.). Governments need to invest in developing capacities to gather accurate data and in recurrent, frequent data collection effots, which is very costly. The DC could advocate for such efforts and function as a mechanism to mobilize resources towards data poor geographical areas and topics.

Contribution received through the e-Agriculture platform

Q3

The development is missing timelines bycountry and harmonization timelines. Time and harmonization and cooperation are of the essence but we still do not challenge ourselves enough to deliver a timely global approach partly because of the "by country" approach. Although we know that we must do better, we are still caught in a nationalistic mindset which in many respect hinders the SDGs. We are missing the gentle strength needed for true sustainability.