ICT FOR FOOD SECURITY: EXPERIENCES

FROM LIFE LONG LEARNING FOR FARMERS

IN SOUTH WESTERN UGANDA

Daniel, Ninsiima

Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute

Kabanyolo

P.O Box 7062, Kampala

Uganda

Email: dninsiima@gmail.com

Tel: +256712035192,

BACKGROUND

Traditional Agricultural Extension Services (AES) intended to

serve smallholder farmers in Uganda and Sub-Saharan Africa at

large have failed to make significant impacts (Jones, 2007), due

partly to the lack of knowledge-sharing practices to disseminate

timely agricultural information.

However, the emergence of Information Communication

Technologies (ICTs) in the last decade

ICTs for Agriculture

ABOUT THE L3F INITIATIVE

Lifelong Learning for Farmers (L3 Farmers) demonstrates

Commomwealth of Learning's (COL) ability to partner with

communities and organisations, and make effective use of ICTs to

facilitate learning for development

Aims at helping rural communities find appropriate technology-

based open and distance education to improve their livelihoods

The programme is a response to a critical need: the wealth of

information resulting from agricultural research and development

often fails to travel the last mile to the villages of the developing

world where it is most needed

L3F LINKING SECTOR PLAYERS THROUGH ICT

EXTENSION CHALLENGES IN UGANDA

highly understaffed with one extension educator required to serve up

to 46,000 farmers and yet poorly paid

Lack of relevant research information presented in an easy to

understand manner and localized to the needs of local small holder

farmers

Lack of knowledge and information articulating best practices and

addressing interconnected socio-economic development issues

including agriculture, education, health, culture and the

environment.

7

Diverse enterprises on the same piece of land

ICTS FOR AGRICULTURE

Uganda’s communications sector is one of the fastest growing in

Africa. As in the rest of the continent, this is largely due to the

rapid expansion of mobile telephony.

Mobile telephone subscribers rose well over 17 million by the

end of 2012— up from more than 9.4 million in December 2009

— which is about one-third of the country’s population.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0

2,000,000

4,000,000

6,000,000

8,000,000

10,000,000

12,000,000

14,000,000

16,000,000

2005/0

6

2006/0

7

2007/0

8

2008/0

9

2009/1

0

2010/1

1

Number of

Subscribers

Teledensity

Source: UCC , Post and Telecommunications Annual Market Review 2010/2011

Uganda Fixed & Mobile Subscriptions & Penetration, 2010/11

POPULATION COVERED BY MOBILE CELLULAR NETWORKS IN UGANDA (%)

(Source: TradingEconomics.com)

M-LEARNING FOR AGRICULTURE EXTENSION

In 2009 COL conducted an information needs asessment

survey to find out the sources of agriculture extension

information, means of access and several other

parameters

ACCESS TO EXTENSION INFORMATION

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Soil & water

conservation

seed & planting

materials

Pest & disease

management

Post harvest

handling

Product

marketing

Record keeping

& financial

management

Leadership &

team work

Kind of Information

Pe

rcen

tag

e (

%)

Access

No Access

SOURCES OF AGRICULTURE INFORMATION

Source of information Response %

Radio 136 65.07

Television 1 0.48

Mobile phones 5 2.39

News papers 11 5.26

Other written materials 6 2.87

Word of mouth 50 23.92

Internet 0 0.00

INFORMATION NEEDS

Soil fertility technologies 20

Market Information 35

Fertilizers (% yes) 11

Soil and water technologies 10

Crop management technologies 14

Crop variety technologies 9

Livestock improved breeds 1

OBJECTIVES OF THE SERVICE

Innovatively use information and

communication technology systems

especially the mobile phone to complement

the conventional agricultural extension

system;

Use the mobile phone to enable free flow of

agriculturally-related information and

knowledge within and between farmers and

extension workers using cost effective

communication technologies in a sound

sustainable social enterprise and

Translate available research content into

local dialects and disseminate information to

farmers in languages they can understand

SHORT MESSAGING SERVICE (SMS)

“Use neem tree leaves to keep your grain safe: Dry the leaves, grind them and

mix with the grain in the bags that you want to store”

“Use tobacco to control spidermites in tomatoes and borer in cabbage. Grind

the leaves, mix with ash and soap water. Let it stay for a night, sift and

spray.”

COSTS OF THE SERVICE

Retrieving a message through a

keyword or sending questions

to the system through sms costs

220/= shs ($ 0.08) and and for

each sms 50/= shs ($0.02) is

credited to us

The farmer gets instant advice

which saves his crops and gets

a good yield. They will now

need accurate information on

the changing market prices so

they can get a good price.

The farmer will always come

back since seasons keep

changing and his information

needs keep changing as well

Seected Farmers’ questions

“256751688459 L3f ndahinga emondi

zayenda kurabya zome kiraretwaki”

meaning what causes my potatoes to

wilt at a time when they start

flowering and another asks

“ “256785037138 L3F uganda okubyara

emondi mu layini kirayongyera

ahamusharyro?” meaning does

planting my potatoes in lines

increase yeild?

CHALLENGES OF SMS/ RELEVANCE OF VOICE

Limitation to 160 characters for text-based messages

Very many are illiterate and cannot retrieve text messages

from their phones

Farmers are more comfortable with voice than text

INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE/AUDIO MESSAGING

IN THE FARMERS’ OWN WORDS

“We have more than 46,000 farmers in our sub-county but we have only one extension officer to serve all of them. Yet, farmers have diverse enterprises which an extension officer may not handle even if he reached them.” Apollo Kaboroga of Kacerere village in Bufundi Sub-county says He continues, “Through the mobile phone, i have been able to get more income from my potatoes since the information provided helps us to link directly with buyers in Kampala. I can now sell a bag of potatoes for as much as 80,000 thousand shillings compared to the paltry 50,000 or sometimes 40,000 shs middlemen paid by taking advantage of our ignorance of market prices.”

Benefitted 1,000 farmers

since 2009

Content sent twice a week

Farmers ask questions

anytime anywhere

SMS system sustains itself

through a share revenue

agreement with the SMS

company

The voice messaging

application has been tested

with over 500 farmers and

in the first month of its

operation, we received over

100 user calls. We are now

engaging NAADS to adopt it and

make it free for all.

About the system

SCALING UP ICT INTO EXTENSION

Integrating the both the voice and SMS based platforms

into the National Extension System so it reach a far wider

audience

Working with Telecom companies and the government to

make it a free service so that all farmers can benefit

KIGEZI HIGHLANDS