Capacity Development, Youth, and ICTs in Agriculture


Organised by: KINU, CTA


Agriculture does not only need the young to replace the old farmer but also to bring innovations that modernise the sector and strengthen it, so that they also benefit from it. The application of new ICTs in agriculture particularly confirms that assertion. This session will be led by a panel of four dynamic young professionals from Africa, the Pacific and Latin America who have launched or are involved in key initiatives in transforming their communities. Jahve’s association is with using ICTs and social media to sensitise youths to organic agriculture; Alloysius and his team have created a company that improves communication via ICTs with smallholder farmers; Joseph has developed ICT platforms that support the marketing of young agricultural businesses; and Miriama has contributed to the development and implementation of agricultural policies for youth in her region. The challenges faced by these young people, their stakeholders and organizations in the implementation of these activities, as well as the policy implications in particular for governments and regional/international institutions will be discussed. These cases are models that will inspire other young people seeking to consolidate the future of ACP agriculture. This is the session not to miss at ICT4Ag!

Nov 5, 13:30 - 15:00
Room: Bulera
Stream: Capacity Strengthening

Sessions Chair


Chair of the session is Ken Lohento
ICT4D Policies Project Coordinator, CTA

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Presentations


Agro-ecological youth using ICT to market environmentally organic products


With the help of a network of agroecological youth, the National Association of Ecological Producers of Peru (ANPE PERÚ) implements an information system (SIANPE) in order to strengthen its organization and realize collective supply that increases its chances in the market.

These young people (either associated to or children of ANPE members) also use social networks, texting and mass media (radio and TV) in order to attract consumers for environmentally friendly products in their towns.

The potential consumers of organic products live in urban areas, and their main sources of information are the social media and the mass media. Indeed, as young people love interacting through social media is an important link to market organic products, disseminating agroecological proposal, and build consumer networks. Through these networks, they share photos, videos, audios and exchange experiences with their peers. These informational materials are also shared in Ecoferias Fruits of the Earth.

The development of ICT skills in young people and their work has helped to improve their leadership, to occupy positions in their local association, get new business opportunities, and motivate more young people to participate in the network.During SIANPE’s implementation a number of difficulties have arisen, like an imperfect collection of field information regarding production data and a defective connection to Internet in rural areas which hampers the uploading of information directly to the online platform.

To remediate this problem information is collected through other ANPE projects, involving local leaders and advisers from the Sistema Garantía Participativa (SGP). For a second stage of the project we expect SIANPE will be used without an Internet connection, in order to be syncronized later. Perhaps one of the hardest challenges will be to consolidate the youth network due to its high turnover, as young people have to take non agricultural jobs outside their communities. In face of that ANPE PERÚ will develop young people’s skills so they can better operate TICs.

Organization : Asociación Nacional de Productores Ecológicos del Perú (ANPE PERU)

The National Association of Ecological Producers of Peru, PERU ANPE is the initiative of a group of organizations and organized organic farmers, who join forces to promote a proposed National Agroecology.

 http://www.anpeperu.org/ 

 

Speaker

Jahvé Mescco Condori

Project Coordinator, ICTs & Youth/Social Communicator, Asociación Nacional de Productores Ecológicos del Perú (ANPE PERU)


Inspiring youth to participate in agricultural activities by harnessing the power of radio, social media and SMS in Kenya


Mkulima Young (Mkulima means farmer in Kiswahili language) is an initiative aims to encourage the youth (particularly in Kenya) to engage in agricultural issues. The negative perceptions towards agriculture, limited access to production resources, lack of agriculture information and skills relevant to the youth and lack of institutional support to youth related agricultural activities all have led to agriculture being unattractive to the youth. Many youths perceive farmers as uneducated, unskilled and as physical laborers who receive low returns from farming when compared to other forms of employment.

This project targets the youth to inspire them to participate in agricultural activities through awareness creation and knowledge change by harnessing the power of multimedia – specifically radio and ICTs. The main aim of this initiative is to change the attitudes and knowledge of the youth so that they view agricultural activities in different perspective.

Mkulima youngMkulima Young identifies youth engaged in outstanding agricultural entrepreneurial activities and disseminates these to other through radio and Social Media (Facebook and Twitter). The SMS a feedback system is paired with radio programs to allow regular feedback from target listeners, allowing the audience to shape the programming and content developments to best reflect their needs through questions and answers.

Social media platform such as Facebook and twitter and which has been branded Mkulima Young () and opened in January 2013 provides a social forum for young people creates a marketplace where youth can post links, photos and videos as well as ask questions, discuss issues and interact with other young people who are passionate about agriculture as an enterprise.

Organization : ACLECOPS (Kenya)

Agriculture, Climate Change and Education Community Programmes, or ACLECOPS, is a not-for-profit, development agency promoting sustainable living and poverty reduction in Kenya and beyond.
ACLECOPS recognizes the need to support and encourage the sustainable development of agriculture, entrepreneurship, education and the environment in Africa so that economically-distressed communities may become self-sustaining.

Speaker

Joseph Kimunge Macharia

Director, ACLECOPS (Kenya)


Farmerline: An improved communication pathway for smallholder farmers


The world’s population is projected to reach 9.2 billion by 2050. Food production will need to increase by 70%. Smallholder farmers, who feed one third of humanity, are an important part of addressing food security. There is a break in communication between smallholder farmers and other actors like agricultural extension agents, market intelligence, financial services, inputs dealers and equipment services along the value chain. This results into decrease in farm productivity and income. Farmerline reaches all phones and offers both SMS and voice interaction (IVR). Our tool does not require user to read, write or speak English, to own a smartphone, or to download an application.Farmerline provides a web-based solution which can be instantly accessed by any organization with internet access in any country. It can be easily used in all sectors and languages – no technical knowledge or hardware investment required. Farmerline’s messaging platform is also released under an open source license.Our users have requested new features like recording of messages directly from the platform and the ability to run SMS surveys. A demo account can be accessed at demo.farmerline.orgUSAID Aquafish CRSP is also using Farmerline to provide Tilapia market information on prices and coastal management best practices to 6000 fishers in Ghana.We are currently operating in Ghana and we will be starting official operations in South Africa, Namibia and Kenya this year.

Organization : Farmerline

Farmerline mission is to increase agricultural information flow, uptake,and accountability in the services delivered to farmers and empower agricultural workers and actors along the value chain to collect and share information to drive food security.

Farmerline provides improved information access and communication channels for smallholder farmers and other stakeholders via Voice and SMS.

The world's population is projected to reach 9.2 billion by 2050. Food production will need to increase by 70%. Smallholder farmers, who feed one third of humanity, are an important part of addressing food security. Farmerline provides improved information access and communication pathways for smallholder farmers and agricultural stakeholders. As a service specifically focused on smallholder farmers, we are able to use our technology to link farmers to markets, finance, inputs and equipment services.

Speaker

Alloysius Attah

CEO, Farmerline