For the past two decades, I have worked on e-Agriculture, ICTs for Agriculture and Digital Agriculture as a practitioner, researcher, development officer, and now a policy adviser. My conclusion is that, for digital solutions and services to be sustained, scaled and then accelerate smallholder agriculture transformation, we need a better approach to data management at…
Category: ICT4D
D4Ag (D4D) should be about Information not Technology!
In my first blog in this series “It’s Time to Phase Out ICT4D (ICT4Ag) and Embrace D4D (D4Ag)!”, I argued that the concept of ICTs for development, both in literal sense and its delivery has focussed on promoting “technologies” to support communication of information for development (information communication technologies (ICTs). I concluded that, technology is…
It’s Time to Phase Out ICT4D (ICT4Ag) and Embrace D4D (D4Ag)!
The era of ICT4D (ICT4Ag) has laid a strong foundation for a new era and it is time for the international development sector to embrace a new terminology and approach – D4D (D4Ag).
Digital agriculture to help Africa through coronavirus
Originally written by Benjamin Addom and Sabdiyo Dido, and published by CTA on Tuesday, 28 April 2020 As COVID-19 continues to devastate lives all over the world, agriculture and food systems come under critical strain. Recessions, food shortages, hunger and malnutrition are feared to be likely, with grave impact on vulnerable communities in developing regions…
Innovative digitalisation project transitions into promising business
Originally published by CTA on Wednesday, 11 July 2019 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…
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…
ICTs for “M&E” Component of the Ag. Value Chain
Access to timely and accurate data on farmers, their households and farm activities is key for policy, decision-making and quality control for development organizations, national governments, funding agencies, project implementers, field workers, researchers and farmers themselves. Demographic data (past and present) on farm households such as land sizes, assets owned, types of soil, weather conditions,…
Digitalisation and Smallholder Agriculture 