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Agriculture Column Tapuwa Mashangwa
SINCE the invention of the computer, technological advancement has spiralled at an exponential rate to spearhead growth of sectors that people never thought could be influenced by computers. Whoever thought that a time would come when an operation would be done by a pre-programmed computer? Who could have imagined a time when a programme called Skype would connect people from two ends of the world in real time?
As if that was not enough, they recently came up with an option that translates spoken words into commonly utilised global languages. One may ask themselves now: What about agriculture?
Access, efficiency and affordability of agricultural information continue to be major impediments to increasing agricultural productivity among smallholders in Africa. Recently information communication technology (ICT) has provided a possible pathway to ameliorate this scenario.
A variety of innovations that integrate ICTs into the dissemination of agricultural information to farmers (Farmers Information Services – FIS) have been developed at local, national and regional levels. They have demonstrated a promising field of new research and application in e-agriculture while bringing new sources of information and new tools for local knowledge dissemination.
Agriculture has definitely not been left been behind with tractors that can now self-diagnose through the assistance of a computer to drones that can be utilised for land/plant analysis.
We must start from the beginning. Who needs updated agricultural information?
Generally in agricultural projects information technology is applicable for the following: Question and answer services (data collection), market information, latest (best) packages of practices, disease/pest early warning system and management, input prices and availability, weather forecasting, information on research and development programmes/subsidies, directory and information on crop insurance, general agricultural news, farm business and management, dairy, AH related information marketing milk/milk products, post harvest technology, facilitation of access to land records/registration online and accounting and easy payment services.
Where and when information technology practices are adopted, utilised and maintained the efficiency and the effectiveness of agricultural project functionality improves as it promotes “The adoption of a demand-driven approach”.
This starts with an analysis of the information needs of the key stakeholders, creating the basis for the project’s organisation and activities, and proving to be one of its strongest points, the pro- active approach taken by the research and extension services made them much more aware of the real needs of farmers.
Fostering of multi-stakeholder dialogue: The project was based on fostering dialogue among representatives from relevant ministries, research centres, extension units (in both the public and private sectors), agricultural education institutions, farmer organisations and farmers.
Raised awareness and building capacity: A strong awareness-raising campaign was implemented, which included placing advertisements in media outlets; training sessions were organised to familiarise stakeholders with the project goal, objectives, components and organisational structure.
Using appropriate technology and providing technical support: The technological solutions offered by the project were based on continuous improvement and were user-friendly, leading to a significant improvement in the flow of information among stakeholders and thus more rapid identification of stakeholder needs, the project also ensured that appropriate and timely technical support was available to all stakeholders, keeping computer system disruptions to a minimum.
Sustainability: The steering committee and the project management team successfully promoted the need for the financial sustainability of the project, given its importance in improving the agricultural extension services, this led to the MALR funding it as a core service.
Agriculture and ICT can no longer be analysed separately. They coexist, correlate and intertwine. The rural farmer within the next two years will be able to have their produce compete on the regional and international market, all thanks to ICT and technological advancement and readily decide, which market would best suit their profitability requirements.
The future is definitely green.
The writer is Tapuwa Justice Mashangwa, a young entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of Emerald Agribusiness Consultancy. He can be contacted on +263 073 909 6418 or email: [email protected].
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