With the ICT4Ag conference well underway in Kigali, it seemed a timely opportunity to highlight some of the ICT4Ag initiatives that have been put into action across Africa, with a focus on the power of mobile devices to bring real benefits to rural farmers and significantly improve their lives and those of the communities in which they live. I’ve tried to bring together three different initiatives in different African states, to give an overview of how this technology can be put to such effective use in meeting the challenges that farmers are facing, and to present them in a way that can inform the uninitiated as much as those with a keen interest in ICT4D.
Ghana: SMS assists local farmers to improve the results of their efforts in rice farming
Non-governmental organisations and G8 member states have made Ghana one of their top priorities in terms of providing financial support and advice to improve farming methods and to help farmers harness the new technologies that can assist them in getting the most from the resources they have available. Under the G8 banner, the New Alliance of Food Security and Nutrition was launched in 2012 with commitments from African leaders, private sector partners and G8 members to make substantial investments towards improving food security, agricultural practices and nutrition levels for 50 million people by 2022. The ‘Feed the Future’ project is their main US initiative for input and involvement in the New Alliance, which includes a significant level of focus on Ghana.
At a far more local level, an article and accompanying video by reporter Nan Boakye-Yiadom for Ghanaian website and radio station Citifm Online was a fascinating source of information on mobile tech helping farmers in the field, as it gave such an interesting and and accessible account of the focus of the article – rural farmer Abdul Rahman Takoro and his family – and the difficulties and challenges they face with subsistence rice farming, and trying to make it an affordable and even profitable venture.
The article explains how only three years ago, Abdul could not afford to send all his eight children to school, unable to earn a living to provide for his family through rice farming as he lacked both the resources and agricultural education to be able to make the farm a success. Thanks to the involvement of Esoko, a private communication company in Ghana, Abdul was able to benefit from an SMS message system to gain information on weather changes, improved farming methods and market prices. The article explains the difficulties that farmers face in getting the information and the help they need through traditional means:
‘…Currently the only way most farmers get such information is through extension officers. The government employees meet with farmers to provide information, but they barely reach a quarter of the total number of farmers in Ghana. As well, according to information from Ghana’s Finance Ministry, about 70 per cent of extension officers will retire from active service in the next three years…’
The article goes on the explain how the Esoko initiative works, and reinforces the idea that private companies and contractors have a huge part to play in assisting with these projects – which in the end can help to improve the economy in the company in which they operate, by increasing the contribution that farming can make to the nation’s GDP:
‘…Esoko has representatives who visit about 50 different markets in the various regions each day and compile the going price of foods. They relay that information to the Esoko headquarters, where it is packaged into simple and comprehensive SMS and distributed to the farmers and traders who are also subscribed on the platform. Farmers also receive information on weather patterns, when to plough their land, when to sow, apply fertilizer, check weeds and harvest…Takoro is one of about 120,000 farmers in the Northern Region making use of the information from Esoko. He’s been receiving the SMS messages for two years. “What we gain from Esoko is immeasurable,” he said. “They alert us with prices in markets nationwide, tell me whatever I produce I can send it there to sell and get interest. They also help us with weather forecasts too…” …Takoro says with the information he can now decide whether to send his produce to the market for sale or sell it to middle men and women, considering which of the options will make him get more money…’
Soil testing results by SMS: Crop Nutrition providing innovative service to Kenyan farmers
Crop Nutrition, and agribusiness company, have set up an innovative service to speed up the process of soil testing and analysis for farmers in Kenya.
Crop Nutrition provide special specimen bags to farmers through their network of field advisors, who train the farmers in the correct methods for collecting the samples, which are then delivered to Crop Nutrition’s laboratory via local agro dealers. Costs are kept low due to the high volumes involved and the level of sophistication of the company’s testing equipment, which also contributes to a much faster turnaround than other more traditional methods of soil testing. The results are then sent via SMS message directly to the farmer, again cutting down on the time it takes from initial sample collection to when the farmer is able to act on the results of their analysis.
USAID’s briefing paper explains how Crop Nutrition assume that local representatives will assist farmers with understanding the implications of the results, if needed, and the importance of soil testing in global farming:
‘…Crop Nutrition works on the expectation that if the results and recommendations are unclear to the farmers, they will be interpreted for the farmers by the agro dealer or field advisor. Soil testing is important for any farmer to know what minerals their soil is deficient in and what type of fertilizer or other inputs may be used to increase soil health and fertility, yields, and resistance to pests and disease…’
The paper can be viewed at via the e-agriculture.org website, (which also provides further information on this initiative), and provides further information on the users and business model of the project, the costs of which are provided entirely by Crop Nutrition, again a private company, as part of their operational expenses. One additional point from the paper is worth reposting here, and that is the anticipated impact of the initiative:
‘…Crop Nutrition lab reports include technical recommendations so that farmers apply the correct fertilizers, lime or other inputs to reduce production costs and improve yields. When correctly used by farmers, this information can contribute to larger crop yields. Agro dealers also receive a small commission for facilitating the service…’
Uganda: ‘Community Knowledge Workers’ provide farmers with invaluable information and market data in exchange for completing surveys
The Grameen Foundation was set up in 1997 to assist communities in developing countries to address their own challenges and reach their full potential, through the provision and application of the right tools and resources. Their website explains further the ethos behind the work they do in trying to help people in the world’s poorest countries:
‘…Our collaborative approach to poverty alleviation recognizes the multidimensional and complex nature of global poverty. We work with private sector companies, non-governmental organizations, government agencies and others to ensure we achieve lasting impact in the regions where we work.’
As explained in an article from the ICT in Agriculture website and as part of Grameen’s work developing new agricultural programmes in Uganda, the organisation has set up the Community Knowledge Worker (CKW) programme with financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The program involved the training of over 800 village-level representatives (CKW’s) to provide agricultural ‘extension services’ to farmers in exchange for their participation in completing mobile device-based surveys. These extension services include the provision of advice in relation to agricultural methods, livestock, crop diseases, weather forecasts and other relevant information. In return, the information provided by the completed surveys helps Grameen and their partner organisations with their research to build up a clearer picture of the issues the farmers are facing – which in turn helps in providing the solutions and advice they are provided with.
This simple, cyclical process has helped local farming communities in Uganda by improving their agricultural yields, whilst the farmers involved have been able to achieve better prices through greater market knowledge of the products they produce. It has also created employment through the recruitment of CKW’s, who, as the article suggests, can further increase the benefits of this two-way cyclical approach, by providing solar-energy services whilst in the field alongside their survey data-collection activities, and thereby increase their earnings at the same time:
‘…CKWs are trained to 1) provide a link to agricultural research institutions and extension services and administer surveys, and 2) to set up off-grid electrical charging micro-enterprises using solar energy. These enterprises can earn CWKs as much as 40 USD/month, which doubles the 1.25 USD/day previously earned by 60% of CKWs.’
The article states that due to access to CKW’s, farmers in Eastern Uganda have seen a 17 percent increase in the prices they achieve for maize compared to those who do not have access to these resources, a clear indication that when applied simply and effectively, with a combination of technology and common-sense human input, these new innovations can be highly successful in improving people’s lives.
Benjamin Smith 