Resources and contributions

ICT in Agriculture: Perspectives of Technological Innovation

This e-book is a free, public domain tool to support ICT Adoption and development decisions. It enrichs the existing wealth of information on ICT Adoption affecting agricultural production, productivity, extension and related issues.

The book’s chapters are designed to share insights refined by professionals in their fields of expertise over at least the past 25 years. The author's insights are derived from ICT Adoption constraints experienced and alleviated, obstacles encountered and surmounted, unavoidable pitfalls and other potential detrimental problems. All these for refining current and future decisions to initiate, develop, design, adopt and update ICT programs and/or ICT supported innovations for agriculture and rural development. These insights are shared in order to avoid costly sub optimal decisions – costly in economic and scarce human capital resources. This resource is NOT a historical review. It is a tool for ICT policy makers, developers, agricultural service providers, research, extension and farmers facing ICT development and adoption decisions.

This resource has been accessed last year several hundred thousand times from more than a hundred countries as background material for ICT focused conferences, international training courses, and, exchange of opinions and information. The link to the table of contents is: http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-table.html

From the summary: "Although positive results have already been achieved with regard to both production and institutions, efforts to increase access to and the use of ICTs in agriculture and the rural milieu in LAC are still at an embryonic stage."

SEE MORE: http://webiica.iica.ac.cr/bibliotecas/repiica/b2270i/b2270i.pdf 

Hi all,

With reference to the topic that we are discussing at this forum, I would like to share link to one of my studies here which deals with the market information needs.the link is given herebelow

http://www.agricorner.com/a-study-of-prioritisation-of-information-related-needs-of-farmers/

Any discussions on the same would be welcome!

Sapna

Please read my PhD thesis entitled "Creating opportunity by connecting the unconnected: mobile phone based agriculture market information service for farmers in Bangladesh" at http://oru.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:440147 . This thesis is in fact a comprehensive summary of Agriculture market information services (AMIS) that has a special focus on the LDCs.

Thesis abstarct :

This thesis is framed within the research area of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), which is concerned with how ICT can make a difference to the lives of the poor. This study focuses primarily on mobile phones and how they can be used as part of an Agriculture Market Information Service (AMIS) in order to provide crucial information to farmers in Bangladesh. AMIS principally collect, manage and disseminate agricultural market prices and related information through various processes and media. These services are mainly used by farmers. The research question of how mobile phone-based AMIS can be designed and deployed in order to improve opportunities for farmers in Bangladesh is investigated through a design science research approach in four steps; understanding the scope and challenges related to AMIS in least developed countries; diagnosing the situational realities of farmers of Bangladesh; understanding the process of adopting mobile phones and investigating market information practices and preferences in a rural context; and finally designing and implementing a mobile phone based AMIS and evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of it for the farmers of Bangladesh. In this thesis, development is viewed in terms of bringing about an in-crease in farmers’ capability set directed towards the utilization of resources for the purpose of production and trade. Information and knowledge are important drivers of development and poverty reduction: ICT can create new opportunities to expand the availability, exchange, and impact of information and knowledge. This thesis contributes to ICT4D research and practice through empirical findings, the design of an AMIS, test results, and the development of analytical tools. Its major contributions include an increased understanding of farmers’ attitudes and preferences towards the use of technology in general, and mobile phones in particular, and a broader understanding of ICT for human development in the context of poor rural regions.

For further information, please email me at [email protected]

“Information and Communication Technology for Rural Farmers Market Access in Tanzania”
Journal of Information Technology Impact, 2010
Author: Agnes Godfrey Mwakaje
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

This study looks at data from two hundred randomly selected farmers in Tanzania who provided information about their use of ICT for accessing agricultural market information. The author analyzes important areas of interest, such as agricultural marketing chains, access to ICT services, sources of market information, and the impact and cost of using ICT. The objective is to provide information for policy and decision makers on how to develop and/or improve ICT services to best serve the rural farming population.

In the “Summary and Conclusion” section, recommendations are given for how to improve access to ICTs and the effectiveness of their use among farmers.

Paper available here: http://www.jiti.com/v10/jiti.v10n2.111-128.pdf
 

Dear All,

These links provide access to a study on strengthening MIS to effectively support agricultural marketing.  It was one of the studies carried out under the Foodnet project (USAID funded) that successfully piloted innovative MIS ways to improve smallholder markets in East and Central Africa -

http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNACR010.pdf

http://old.iita.org/cms/articlefiles/736-ASARECA_9-Cassava_Marketing_in_...