Global Forum Panel Session on: Mobiles in Agriculture

The 4th Global Forum on Innovation & Technology Entrepreneurship, organized by infoDev, the World Bank, and partners, May 30 - June 3, 2011 in Helsinki, Finland focused on mobile applications, agri-business and clean technologies. A panel session was organized to focus specifically on "Mobiles in Agriculture", and the piece below formed the substance of my contribution as a panellist.

In the World Bank Sourcebook on "ICTs in Agriculture", the module on mobile devices and services describes five generic functions/categories that mobile applications have taken in the agricultural sector:

• Advice, education, and awareness: applications that enable provision of information to farmers and extensionists about good practices, crop varieties, and pest or disease management.
• Commodity prices, market information, and trading transactions: applications that prices in regional markets to inform decision making throughout agricultural value chains.
• Data collection: applications that enable collection of data into central repositories, potentially from large geographic regions.
• Pest and disease outbreak warning and tracking: applications that send and receive data on outbreaks.
• Financial services: applications that enable provision of microloans, banking services, and microinsurance for crops and livestock.

The same Module describes the general types of benefit of accruing to rural people and organizations through the use of Mobiles in Agriculture, in the form of (a) lowering the cost of information; (b) increasing farm income; (c) lowering the cost of transportation; and (d) provision an accessible platform for service delivery and innovation.

In the e-Agriculture Policy Brief on Mobiles in Agriculture from March 2009 (see Key Topics for additional information on mobiles in agriculture), the above benefits were also identified, along with some limitations that have only been partially addressed, namely the relatively high costs of handsets, limited network coverage and quality of service, limited capacities of rural people to use mobile devices beyond standard voice and SMS, and the functional limitations of the basic handsets/software available in developing countries in the sense of 140 character messages and Roman script alphabets.

FAO uses mobiles in a variety of ways in support of its work with governments and national organizations in member countries, with some examples being the monitoring and surveillance by agricultural officers of the incidence and spread of infectious pests and diseases of crop plants and livestock, the monitoring of use and disposal of governments' pesticide stocks, and mapping and monitoring of sources of water. These functions require midrange and "smart" handsets if complex data forms have to be filled in, geo-referenced data are being collected and used, or if photos are required. The data collected also have to be incorporated into web services and mainstream information systems.

FAO’s mobile specialists have identified some positive aspects of the use of mobiles based on experience with these functions, namely timeliness and accessibility of data/information, size and accessibility of user base, portability/mobility of the devices, and the ability to enrich data with location and images/photos if advanced handsets are used. The challenges facing adoption of mobiles for FAO’s work include the rapidly evolving technologies, selection between competing technical standards, and increasing diversity of makes/models of handsets in use.

On this basis, FAO’s mobile specialists take very careful consideration of a range of factors when developing mobile applications, including usability, sensitivity of data being transmitted, connectivity/bandwidth requirements, and the range of handsets being used by operators. FAO uses open source systems and applications, and monitors very carefully the Open Mobile Consortium.

Data/information quality has to be carefully monitored in all cases, with clear issues arising around accuracy of numerical/factual data required for markets, trade, transport, and finance-related issues.  However, the nature of information provided through rural/agricultural advisory services has major aspects of quality in terms of reliability and local relevance. Provision of such information has an aspect of trust in the provider, which is not to be assumed and may take time to establish. Incorrect or irrelevant information may seriously affect or impair fragile rural livelihoods and raise issues of liability for losses and damage. It is important that such information is impartial and independent, and validated against experience and accepted practices. If knowledge bases generated through such activities are made available to research institutions, they can provide the basis for decision-making and prioritization.

In summary, it was stressed that access to data and information is not enough in itself, rural people need the means to act on such information, which means an enabling environment, appropriate organizations, and the necessary skills. If these are unavailable, then there is a risk that access to information will selectively benefit the relatively well resourced and the poor will miss out.