MAKING ICT WORK FOR AGRICULTURE: USING THE MOBILE PHONE AS LEARNING

TOOL FOR RURAL FARMING COMMUNITIES IN UGANDA

Daniel, Ninsiima

Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo

P.O Box 7062, Kampala

Uganda

Email: dninsiima@gmail.com

Tel: +256712035192,

ICT for Agriculture

ABOUT THE L3F INITIATIVE Lifelong Learning for Farmers (L3 Farmers) demonstrates

Commom Wealth of Learning's (COL) ability to partner with communities and organisations, and make effective use of ICTs to facilitate learning for development

Aims at helpig 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 to46,000 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.

6Diverse enterprises on the same piece of land

ICT FOR AGRICULTUREUganda’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 14 million by the end of 2011— up from more than 9.4 million in December 2009 — which is about one-third of the country’s population.

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 & waterconservation

seed & plantingmaterials

Pest & diseasemanagement

Post harvesthandling

Productmarketing

Record keeping& financial

management

Leadership &team work

Kind of Information

Per

cen

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 innovativly 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 sustaunabe 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 characaties for text based Mesages

Very many are illitrate and cannot retrieve text mesages 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 to say, “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

Benefited 1,000 famers since 2009

Content sent twice a week

Farmers ask questions anytime anywhere

Content retrieved automatically using keywords

SMS system sustians 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 recieved over

100 user calls

Call costs 180-240 Ughs

About the system

SCALING UP THE SERVICE/CHALLENGES

Investing in more equipment to handle more calls at a time since the current GSM device can only handle one call at a time and clogs up the system when more users are trying to access the service. An alternative power source is needed to have the system available 24/7 even when there is a power outage

Promoting the service through available media options like radio and print to attract usage and make more farmers aware of the service and how they can access it. This will attract more traffic to the service and create a more sustainable venture

CONTINUED.... Training is needed in professional audio and text

content development. There is also need to link with researchers and scientists so they can provide feedback to farmer queries as soon as they come in.

Intergration of the service in research systems and government extension systems. This can be done through the national agricultural research organisation (NARO) and national agricultural advisory services (NAADS) organisations that are responsible for research and extension in Uganda.

Bringing telecom companies on board to agree on a revenue share agreement as means of sustaining the initiative. Telecom companies could provide a waiver to farmers making calls to the service to make it more affordable

KIGEZI HIGHLANDS