Inventory of Innovative Farmer Advisory Services using ICTs

According to this publication, for the past 10 years there has been a remarkable progress in the use of ICT in African agriculture, especially in the area of farmers' access to market information. Various projects have been developed that integrate ICTs into the dissemination of agricultural information to farmers. Farmers Information Services at both the national and regional level are a promising new field of research and application in the emerging field of e-agriculture.

Published by the International Institute for Communications and Development (IICD), this inventory of farmer advisory services is an attempt to document innovative farmer advisory services or systems currently in the design stages, already existing, or recently completed in Africa. The inventory is focused on projects and services that provide agricultural training and information to farmers directly, through the use of ICTs, rather than documenting services that facilitate exchange of information among researchers and policymakers. It also does not include the many research initiatives that exist to study the possible application of ICTs to agriculture or organisations or projects that focus exclusively on the development of linkages with input agencies, credit organisations, and markets through the use of ICTs. The inventory is the result of desk research plus an online consultation with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) Regional Agricultural Information & Learning System (RAILS) held during the month of October 2008.

According to the authors, the inventory suggests that systems which use a voice platform or audio files provide an innovative and promising entry point to farmer information, while the other platforms (web- and SMS-based (text) platforms) remain essential to providing a back-end which offers more detailed information. The inventory entries indicate that many projects are still in the pilot phase and are, or have been, of short duration and are typically managed or implemented by international organisations, thereby revealing the need to critically review upscaling scenarios and move from pilot to mainstream.