Thursday 18 July 2013

Smallholders access to improved technology:Challenges and Opportunities

Goats loitering outside one of Equity Bank branches.

Whenever you pry in to the the world of agricultural publications, two major keywords stand out from the rest. Technology and smallholder farmers

Technology in this case being any creation/idea that makes life easier in a more efficient way. This could be low cost tech or non tech innovation with a potential for replication in other areas be it in the area of improved seeds variety,facilitating access to farm inputs,provision of better ways of storage and access to information among many others. Such if adopted by smallholder farmers have the potential of Increasing yields, improving labor productivity hence increasing agricultural productivity which in turn raises their incomes and subsequently boosts the economic growth of a country.

But this isn't the current scenario  in most developing countries.


Smallholder farmers happen to be the bulk of farming in developing countries. In Kenya for instance, they  take 75% of the total agricultural production with very few having access to improved technology. With a view to improving the situation through dialogue, Agrilinks sought to unveil the reasons behind this by featuring experts Milton Lore of  Kenya Feed the Future Innovation Engine, Bob Rabatsky of  Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation and Kristen Gendron of   USAID Development Innovation Ventures in a Twitter Chat dubbed "Smallholders Access to Improved Technology". 



Fostering discussions on Twitter under the guidance of selected questions, (See them Here), and the #AskAg , key players and agricultural enthusiasts were able to air their views as to what are the major reasons behind low tech adoption for smallholders in developing countries were. Among those stated include:
  • Lack of pre-investment education and subsequent training on product service agreements and product guarantees.
  • Lack of access to finances/capital for the smallholders to buy equipment and improved inputs.
  • Lack of after sales service especially where equipment sale to rural farmers is involved. Breakage/ malfunction of one part renders the whole equipment useless.
  • Unwillingness to invest in the technology as they lack beliefs on the importance of the new innovation.
  • Illiteracy especially where the technology isn't translated to languages the smallholder farmers can understand.
  • Cultural beliefs and values in certain communities might hinder technology adoption.
  • Lack of proper demonstration of the product use which in turn renders the product ineffective.
  • Limited number of agricultural extension workers to aid in technology adoption.
  • Environmental factors and poor infrastructure. Farmers are unwilling to invest in new technology if their produce has no hope of reaching the market.
  • Lack of participatory approaches between farmers and the developers of technology.
  • Uneven subsidies for farming inputs and government regulations inhibit adoption too.
  • Market failure while introducing these new technologies.


Nevertheless, not all is lost. Interested companies can assess the technology needs and size of the bottom of Pyramid agricultural markets by:
  • Ensuring the presence of on the ground partners who have a wide range of knowledge on both local crop science and institutional constraints.
  • Viewing the market with a local perspective. Foreign entities have a tendency to amplify the addressable market using a foreign definition of the need.
  • Engaging the grassroots of the farming communities in research and technology development for ease in technology adoption.
  • Presence of demonstration projects that allow smallholders to experiment firsthand with the technology and define the technology value for their communities.
  • Encourage iteration by investing in stages to test,adapt and scale new approaches based on prior evidence gathered. 
  • Understanding customer profiles and the agricultural value chains as composition of BoP markets differ across countries.
  • Taking note of intercultural sensitivity when introducing new technologies.


Despite these opportunities, companies are still unwilling to package and market these technologies to smallholder farmer with major reasons being:
  • Lack of market information on the needs of smallholder farmers that highlights their unmet demand.
  • Lack of willing partnerships to cover the problem of lack of access to finances.
  • Poor protection of intellectual property.
  • High costs involved as pertains to reaching smallholders be it in transportation, training or in the development of distribution channels hence projecting a low Return on Investment.
  • Conflicts and political instabilities in some areas.

When all is said and done, the situation is not all that bleak. Some ventures across the world are facilitating smallholders' access to improved technology. These include, but aren't limited to;

  1. Sygenta's  Kilimo Salama , a weather based insurance application ow.ly/n1i99
  2. Harvest Mark who are are using QR codes for traceability of produce and food.
  3. Freedom Fone who use interactive Voice Response and SMS to address illiteracy barriers
  4. Digital Green inexpensive video technology that helps farmers share innovations in India
  5. The Purdue ag Hermetic grain storage technology that increases small scale farmers capital with storage of grains during off season for sale during peak seasons .
  6. Promethean Power a thermal battery off-grid refrigeration at dairy cooperatives in India

Are you aware of other technological innovations aiding smallholders access to improved technology? Feel free to share in the comments section below.

For a complete list of the shared links during the chat,kindly visit http://agrilinks.org/blog/recap-askag-twitter-chat-smallholder-access-improved-technology

Also you can read through My Storify for a quick summary of the Tweet Chat discussion.




Monday 8 July 2013

Paying it Forward: Social media Training for Kwale Arts Troupe

A Section of some of the participants
Kwale Arts Troupe is a very active youth group that uses arts/acting to pass various messages to the community. They have been in active collaboration with Plan International Kwale WASH program and the Ministry of Health especially on issues of reproductive health.

Just recently they produced a movie called KIZA and even performed a poem during this year's Madaraka Day. Looking at the potential they have and the data I got from them during the APPR process, I sought to help profile their presence online.

For two days, (27th and 28th June, 2013) I led them through the social media training whose objectives were:



  • To expose the trainees on various social media tools at their disposal.
  • Learn how to open and operate a various social media channels (Blogs, Twitter, Facebook page and YouTube)
  • To come up with a social media strategy to aid their activities online.

The first day was mainly introducing them to social media. We delved in to the objectives of the training, their expectations from the training and what social media is general is. The group expected to gain insights as to the use of various social media tools.
One of the powerpoint slides

Later on, we set on a step by step illustration on how to open a gmail account as none actually had before delving on how to create blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts and YouTube accounts. My choice for these tools was for the reason they are most used platforms online. For instance there are more than 126 million blogs on the internet, we have over 2 billion views on  YouTube videos, Facebook has over 500 million users and at least 50% of these make a log in daily and over 65 million tweets are sent daily. Hence maximizing on these four channels is of paramount importance. More so, I realized they are very green in to the world of online media and hence a step by step usage of these tools was important.

On the second day, we delved in to the social media strategy meant to help pave way for their online engagement. This was in a detailed process looking at their social media goal/objective, their target audience, sample work plan, monitoring and evaluation, measuring impact and risk control process.

Achievements

By the end of the training, the participants were able to:


  • Operate their twitter accounts. In total 9 all of them created their accounts. I encouraged them to experiment with their own accounts before embarking on their institutional one.
  • They were able to upload videos on YouTube and foster conversation and engagement on the already existing ones.
  • They were able to create a Facebook page “Kwale Arts “though new and modification is ongoing. Feel free to drop a like on the same page.
  • They learnt how to create a blog using blogger.

Projections
After a week deliberation, the group will come up with a social media strategy which will help them in their engagement online. I will step in to help them get on their feet as pertains all these social media channels.