Originally written on Tuesday, 7 January 2020 Solutions that bundle multiple digital agricultural services have the capacity to unlock the potential of smallholder farmers. However, emerging ‘super platforms’ are complex and their impacts need to be carefully assessed before widely promoted in Africa. A super platform is a type of digital agricultural solution which bundles…
Author: benjaminkaddom
Information and Knowledge Management Expert with Experience in the Strategic Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Development Specific focus on ICT for Agricultural Development, Food Security and Livelihood.
Innovative digitalisation project transitions into promising business
Originally written on Sunday, 15 February 2015 BLOG A recurring question in agricultural development is how to transition successful donor-funded initiatives into self-sustaining, smallholder-focused businesses. One of CTA’s most innovative digitalisation projects, the Market-led, User-owned ICT4Ag-enabled Information Service (MUIIS), is proving it can be done. The MUIIS project was established in September 2015 with support from the…
Capacity Building, ICTs and Gender Issues in Ag. Value Chains
Relation between Farming, Research, Extension, Gender & ICTs (Photo Credit: Ben Addom) In this post, I bring together two arguments as the basis for addressing the challenge of capacity building in agriculture through the emerging value chain approach, and the role Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) can play to increase food security in some of these…
From ICT4Ed to ICT4Ag: The Potential of EasySMS Mobile App!
Photo Credit: EasySMS EasySMS mobile app intends to enable illiterate people to “read” SMS on Windows Phone 7; understand the meaning of each word of the SMS; and write SMS using icons with sound support and SMS recomposition from previous SMSs. It is a Windows phone application which empowers illiterate people to read, compose, send…
AGRONET: Connecting small producers to information in Colombia
Photo Credit: Agronet-Colombia AGRONET, a National Agricultural Information and Communication Network was developed with the goal to connect small producers in Colombia and reduce the digital divide through public private partnerships and growing broadband penetration in rural municipalities. A Government of Colombia’s initiative under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in collaboration with the United…
Another App for Smallholder Farmers: M-Farm
Photo Credit: M-Farm M-Farm is an award winning mobile solution for agribusinesses and farmers currently being piloted in Kenya. It is an SMS and web-based application focused on improving weaknesses in the value chain. It is a transparency tool for Kenyan farmers to get information pertaining to the retail price of their products, buy their…
Africa Monitoring System (AMS) for Sustainable Food Security
Photo Credit: TV Pro Gear An initiative being co-led by Conservation International (CI), the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa and the Earth Institute (EI), Columbia University, has been launched with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Africa Monitoring System (AMS) tool will track, monitor and diagnose agricultural…
8Villages: A new social network app for smallholder farmers
Photo Credit: 8Villages.com One of the new ICT solutions that I have discovered and love to share with agricultural commodity value chain implementers is 8Villages, a mobile platform that links farmers to their communities of peers, input suppliers, and their external business partners. Below is a short discussion that I had with the Founder and…
A business model for delivering information to smallholder farmers: RUNetwork
As the hype for integrating new information and communication technologies (ICTs) into agricultural value chain projects increases, one of the common questions that ICT4D analysts often try to answer is, who pays for the service – the poor farmer, the project, the government, or a donor agency? Payment for information services to farmers is one…
Who wins: Rural Agriculture or Mobile Sector?
Is rural agriculture a big business opportunity for the mobile industry or the mobile industry is a big business opportunity for rural agriculture? This is the question that I continue to grapple with as I browse through presentations at the mAgri event during the just ended GSMA Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain, and…
Digitalisation and Smallholder Agriculture 