NB: This is my personal analysis of contributions to question two from the forum. This post is the second in series of six, analyzing each of the six forum questions that were discussed. One of the objectives of the mFarmer Initiative is to drive scalable, replicable and commercially successful mobile agricultural solutions that bridge the…
Category: Innovation
The Debate over Intermediaries in Ag. Value Chain: E-TIC Project
For decades, the role of intermediaries between farmers and other stakeholders (researchers, policy makers, donors, etc.) has been key in the exchange of agricultural information, knowledge, innovation and other resources. The traditional intermediary role has been played over the years by the various national agricultural extension services but due to the challenges with this system,…
Is e-Krishok a Model for Scaling ICTs for Ag. Projects?
Integrating information communication technologies (ICTs) into agriculture is still a challenge, especially at the farm level in most developing countries. While the potentials of ICTs in improving access to agricultural information for these smallholder farmers is huge, the impact of the technologies on the productivity and living conditions of farmers is yet to be realized….
12 Opportunities for Mobile Telecommunications in Agriculture
In their recent report “Connected Agriculture,” Vodafone and Accenture with support from Oxfam outlined 12 opportunities that mobile telecommunication has for farmers. The opportunities were identified as ‘the most important’ through stakeholder consultations and are grouped into four categories. Category I: Improving Access to Financial Services through increasing access and affordability to these services tailored…
Nano Ganesh: A Mobile App for Remote Irrigation Control
Nano Ganesh is an innovation that is helping smallholder farmers across two Indian states to remotely turn their irrigation pumps ‘on’ and ‘off’ using their mobile phones. In an industry dominated by ringtones and games, this is a welcome move towards technology that serves development, said Vineeta Dixit, a principal consultant at the e-Governance Division…
“Agriculture Goes High Tech” – A Decade of Digital Video!
It is over 10 years now that the Commonwealth of Learning Media Empowerment (COLME) program hit the media with the headline “Agriculture Goes High Tech With Digital Video”. This came up as a result of the success of their pilot project that used digital technology to produce farm instructional videos in Ghana and Jamaica for…
Farmer Innovations – The Case of Tanzanian Farmers & Smartphones
Through a collaborative knowledge base, farmers from the Chambezi region of the Bagamoyo District in Tanzania are using smartphones equipped with GPS modules and an application that makes it easy to send pictures and sounds to the Internet. The smartphones are used to document their daily practices, make reports about their observations regarding changes in…
Reforming Ag. Extension, One ICT at a Time!
Two recent case studies on some ICTs for agricultural development projects supported through the GSMA Development Fund – mAgri Program reveal an emerging trend within the broader Agricultural Extension Services (AES) and specifically in the developing nations, that worth commenting on. The revealing trend I’ve noticed, is that, either drastic policies and actions be taken…
Digitalisation and Smallholder Agriculture 