Lessons from the Field: ICTs in Agriculture (October 2004 update)


Nearly two-thirds of the labor force in low-income countries is employed in agriculture, mostly through isolated small family farms that have comparatively limited involvement with markets. In recent years, several projects have begun using ICTs to provide relevant agricultural information in these rural areas, helping farmers to improve their labor productivity, increase their yields, and realize a better price for their produce.

Portals
Most of the agriculturally-focused projects in our Clearinghouse have developed an online portal for farmers. These portals provide the farmers with a variety of information including market prices, weather reports, and farming best practices. Thailand's Agricultural Information Network, India's Agventures, and Jamaica's Agri-Business Information System are all subsidized projects that aim to enhance the living standards of farmers by offering such information.

Some portals are for-profit, earning revenue through advertising or registration fees. In Senegal, Météo Marine provides fishermen with marine weather forecasts, as well as the transportation timetables and available freight capacity, helping them to improve both their safety and revenues. In Pakistan, Pakissan is creating new markets by using an Internet-enabled van to familiarize farmers on the uses of IT in agriculture. And in neighboring India, the JFarmIndia portal provides local-language advisory services about crops to farming communities throughout the country.

Governments, too, are using IT to create online information portals. Bangalore-based Krishi Marata Vahini, the Uttar Pradesh Marketing Information System, and the national Agricultural Marketing Information Network (Agmarknet) are all government initiatives aiming to provide timely information to India's farmers.

Other portals are relevant to farmers all over the world. The ICRISAT Online Database contains 50,000 records on crops and resources of interest to farmers in semi-arid tropical areas, while the Rice Knowledge Bank is a portal geared towards rice farmers that provides information on everything from pest control to irrigation. Through the portal, farmers can also access tools for both diagnosing field problems (Rice Doctor) and making crop management decisions (TropRice). Another portal, the Honey Bee Network, incorporates about ten thousand "green" grassroots innovations, including outstanding examples of traditional ecological and technological knowledge of farmers, artisans, pastoralists, and fishermen and women.


E-Commerce
Several portals provide not just information, but an e-commerce platform as well, allowing small farmers and farmer cooperatives expanded distribution channels for their produce. By bringing together online both producers and distributors, these portals help enable a more efficient marketplace that rewards both buyers and sellers.

For example, B2Bpricenow.com is a free agriculture e-marketplace that provides updates via SMS messaging to Philippino farmers. An online trading and payment system for farmers and cooperatives is also available on the site. In India, Agriwatch provides information and analysis on agricultural commodities, and includes an online auction and e-commerce features for Indian producers and suppliers. Also in India, Media Lab Asia is developing an electronic trading platform for agro commodities called Digital Mandi.


Kiosks for Farmers
Farmers in developing countries frequently have neither the literacy nor connectivity that would allow them to benefit from these portals. To overcome such obstacles, some projects that have produced portals are also setting up a kiosk network that provide mediated access to them.

Several such networks can be found in India. For instance, through its e-Choupal kiosks, agri-exporter ITC Limited is building an internationally competitive agriculture business by empowering, not eliminating, the independent small farmer. The IT-enabled Choupals not only provide the farmers with valuable information, but also allow them to sell their produce directly to ITC, thereby eliminating the middleman and bringing higher profits to both ITC and the farmers. EID Parry, an agricultural company in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, has set up a network of 'Parry's Corners' through which farmers can access its IndiaAgriline portal and e-commerce platform. The state government of Karnataka is doing the same through its Raita Mitra Yojane project.

Beyond India, the Business Intelligence Trade Points project in Burkino Faso provides access to market information through both a national and regional centers. A similar hub-and-spoke system has been set up in Jamaica through the Central and Satellite Agriculture Information Centers project. In Bangladesh, one group has developed a Boat-Based Telecenter to provide agricultural information to farmers located in areas inaccessible by roads.


Innovative Technology Use
Technologies, both new and old, are providing innovative solutions to agricultural problems. AKASHGANGA is using simple technologies to revolutionize dairy cooperative societies in India. Through the use of automatic milk collection systems, procedures that used to take hours and days now take minutes. To enhance the utility of these new automated systems, the Center for Electronic Governance at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad has made the company an implementation partner for its Dairy Information Systems Kiosk (DISK) project, which provides data analysis and decision support aimed at improving the farmers' yields.

Finally, in Senegal, the Cyber Shepard program has provided herders with Global Positioning Systems (GPS), cellular phones, and Internet-capable computers, helping them to make better decisions about where to graze their flocks.

More Resources
To learn more about projects that use ICTs in agriculture, search the Digital Dividend Clearinghouse. The database contains for more than 85 ICT-related projects that have Agriculture as an activity type... Search

The Digital Dividend Resource Marketplace contains several agricultural-specific links and tools.

ICT Update is a bi-monthly Web magazine from the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) on ICTs for agricultural and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.

"Gender, ICTs and Agriculture" (2002) discusses the obstacles and opportunities that exist in the use of ICTs by resource-poor farmers, women, and youth.

"Future Directions in Agriculture and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) at USAID" (2003) examines the impact that ICTs can have on agricultural development and productivity, and outlines trends and emerging ICT opportunities in agriculture.

The Woman of Uganda Network has also produced a good list of online agriculture links and resources.