E-Agriculture

Resources and references for this forum

The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) is working with many programmes to develop the skill to get the logic of their programme down onto paper in sufficient detail. This results in a "results chain" that can be used for measurement and capturing impact.

DCED has provided some case studies here:
http://www.enterprise-development.org/page/measuring-and-reporting-results

Mohammad Shahroz Jalil
Mohammad Shahroz JalilKatalyst-SwisscontactBangladesh
Despite the great deal of interest on results of development initiatives, there is a scarcity of good quality information on what is being achieved In many cases, questions of credibility of the information collected is raised. The DCED standards provides a practical framework which programmes could use for capturing results of their initiatives. The link for the DCED standards is here http://www.enterprise-development.org/page/measuring-and-reporting-results Katalyst was one of the first programmes to be audited according to the standards. The following link tells you about their expereince with the DCED standards and audit http://www.enterprise-development.org/media/KatalystDCEDstatement.pdf
John Zoltner
John ZoltnerDataDyne.org/The Zoltner Consulting GroupChile

Thanks, Michael and Shahroz:

I had heard of the Donor Committee, but had never seen their standards for measuring and reporting results. I strongly believe in the importance of clearly articulating the logic behind the methodology, goals and objectives of any development project as a necessary first step in monitoring and evaluating outcomes. It may seem obvious, but too often development programs are created in response to various requirements which are not directly related to the outcomes sought -- such as requirements in Requests for Proposals, or local political considerations. The DCED standards -- and in particular the Results Chain mapping process -- provide a relatively easy way to help development project designers and managers clarify the outcomes they wish to receive and the process they expect to employ to arrive at those outcomes.

The DCED Standard ‘At a Glance’ 

1. Articulating the Results Chain 

2. Defining indicators of change 

3. Measuring changes in indicators 

4. Estimating attributable changes 

5. Capturing wider changes in the system or market 

6. Tracking programme costs 

7. Reporting results 

8. Managing the system for results measurement 

 

_______________________

 

John Zoltner

Director, Latinoamérica y el Caribe, DataDyne.org

President, The Zoltner Consulting Group

Santiago, Chile

Bio: http://www.google.com/profiles/jzoltner

web: www.datadyne.org |  www.zoltner.com

 

 

Surabhi Mittal
Surabhi MittalCIMMYT Int.India

 This might be of interest.

ICRIER WP 246. Socio Economic Impact of Mobile Phone son Indian Agriculture- Surabhi Mittal, Sanjay Gandhi and Gaurav Tripathi.http://www.icrier.org/page.asp?MenuID=24&SubCatId=175&SubSubCatId=691

Cheers

Surabhi Mittal

 

Mahfuz Hossain Mirdah
Mahfuz Hossain MirdahDepartment of Agricultural Extension, Ministry of Agriculture, BangladeshBangladesh

Now a days initiatives has been taken to create opportunities to access ICT based agricultural information for the farmers. Most of the training centers of agricultural organizations, Upazila offices of agriculture department, Union Parisad offices as information center are well equiped with internet facilities. In bengali many web sites are disseminating agricultural information and technologies to the farmers and agril stakeholders. They can get expert advice for particular agricultural problem or can get updated information.

But most of these initiatives are project based which is not continue after the end of the project period. Indipendent or self sustainable web sites can play a vital role to have impact for long time by commercial approach.

Mahfuz Hossain Mirdah

Dhaka, Bangladesh
 

Shehzaad Shams
Shehzaad ShamsAmnesty InternationalUnited Kingdom

The free, public domain e--book "ICT Adoption in Agriculture" provides a wealth of information - specifically on ICT Adoption  affecting production and productivity. The link to the book is http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-main.html
The authors of each of the chapters review their  long and comprehensive experience in ICT Adoption in their fields of competence with a focus on decision makers faced with ICT Adoption and development. Last year the book was accessed several hundred thousand times. 
Comments will be most welcome.
Ehud Gelb [email protected]

Shehzaad Shams
Shehzaad ShamsAmnesty InternationalUnited Kingdom

From Krishan Bheenick

Targeting Oucomes of Programs (http://citnews.unl.edu/TOP/english/index.html ) is still a very valid approach to guide any formulation of evaluation and impact assessment of information management programs. The TOP enables the conceptual framework used to design the information provision approach to be described on one hand and on the other hand it enable each step in the process also to be evaluated for its effectiveness in leading to the desired outcome.

Shehzaad Shams
Shehzaad ShamsAmnesty InternationalUnited Kingdom

Special thanks to Torbjorn for sharing this -

You can find it at http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/dtlstict2011d1_en.pdf.

Valeria Pesce
Valeria PesceGlobal Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR)Italy

[On behalf of Ehud Gelb]

In December 2009 the "International Consultation on Agricultural Research for Development and Innovation: Addressing emerging challenges and exploiting opportunities through Information and Communication Technologies" was held at ICRISAT in Patancheru (Hyderabad, India).
One of the topics covered by the consultation was the evaluation of the impact of ICT adoption in agriculture.

The final report of the event is available here: http://www.fao.org/docs/eims/upload/276320/ICT%20Hyderabad%20Workshop%20Paper.pdf

Shehzaad Shams
Shehzaad ShamsAmnesty InternationalUnited Kingdom

Thank you Valeria and Ehud, this is very useful and interesting!