[day 3] agcommons: what we've heard
DESCRIPTION
Presented by Jennifer Barnes (CH2M Hill) at the CGIAR-CSI Annual Meeting 2009: Mapping Our Future. March 31 - April 4, 2009, ILRI Campus, Nairobi, KenyaTRANSCRIPT
1
Phase 1
Learning/Consultation
Process
AGCommons
Results of Scan and West African Outreach
16-27 March 2009
Overview
Outreach Approach
What We Heard in West Africa
Key Observations or Findings
Potential Projects
2
Outreach Objectives
Understand existing information and
infrastructure
ID farmers information needs
Get to know potential partners
3
Outreach Approach
Scan of existing organizations and programs
Individual meeting with stakeholders
Mini-workshops
Field visits
4
Outreach Locations
West Africa
– Mali
– Burkina Faso
– Ghana
CSI Meeting
Rome
Washington DC
East Africa
– Kenya
– Uganda
– Rwanda
West Africa Outreach Stakeholders
6
Government Agencies
Ag Research/ Finance
NGOs/ Tech Companies
Farmers Associations
Farmer
IGM
Ministry of Ag
Univ. of Bamako
IER
ICRISAT
IFDC
Afribone
DNA
SLM Project
APCAM
AOPP
CNOP
IGB
SONAGESS
DENAG
SISA
AP/CONEDD
IFDC
DGPSE/MRA
IABER
SIGET-A
ROPPA
Pag-La-Yiri
FENOP
Survey Dept
CSIR
Ministry of Ag
Cocoa Board
SRID
NASRDA
IWMI
ADB
CERSGIS
ADRA
TIPCEE
MiDA
esoko
FONG
Individual Meetings
Types of Questions
Existing agricultural data
Current information provided
to farmers
Current ICT infrastructure out
to farmers
Similar programs and activities
Other information that could
help farmers increase income
Potential challenges
Specific information needs and
challenges of female farmers
7
Field visit to Reo Village area
Burkina Faso
8
Mini-Workshop
Introductions
Presentation on
AGCommons
– Discussion
Small Group
Exercise
– Identification of
potential projects
– Female Farmers
Wrap up
9
What We Heard – Sound bytes
“Who would I need
information from, I am
the farmer here”
– Farmer in Reo village,
Burkina Faso
“We have failed to
meet the needs of the
farmers by providing
location-specific
information”
– IER, Mali
10
What We Heard – Sound bytes
“We have not
discussed the aspect of
providing information
to women farmers”
– Pag-La-Yiri, Burkina Faso
“Farmers need to see
proof that new
technologies work;
climate risk is so big
that trust is hard to
establish”
– Ministry of Agriculture,
Statistics, Burkina Faso
11
What We Heard - Sound bytes
“Location-specific pest monitoring could cut in half
the quantity of pesticides required to cotton crops
and directly impact farmer’s bottom line”
– Agriculture Development Bank (ADB), Ghana
“Applying location intelligence to existing market
information systems, would reduce the length and
number of messages, thereby reducing costs for
farmers to access information”
– esoko, Ghana
12
What We Heard - Sound bytes
“An accurate calculation for the area of a farmer’s
plot can save them up to 40 percent on inputs”
– ADB and TIPCEE
“The timeliness of information is critical to value it
can provide to farmers. They need market price
information at the moment of harvest. If there is
something that they want and need more than the
best price for their products, it is cash in hand.”
– TIPCEE
13
Existing Information Dissemination
Structures
Farmers’ organizations exist that link the farmer to
national government
Value chain optimization focused on fertilizer inputs
Examples where location-specific information
services have effectively supported a specific crop
or set of crops
Market price dissemination networks (TV, Radio,
SMS, e-mail, community bulletin boards)
Local mapping capacities
Lack of information scaled and
distributed to the farmer level
15
Government Agencies
Donors/ NGOs
Research organizations
Information being produced at
the national and regional level
AGCommons will provide location-
specific information to the farmer
16
Farmers
Climate
Market
Inputs
Farmer Value/Information Chain
Deciding Planting GrowingHarvesting/ Transport
Selling
17
Information Needs
• Price
• Availability
• Suitability
• Credit
Data Sources
• Market intelligence
• Soils , water and climate data
• Credit offers
Providers
• Agric Ministry
• Other Gov
• Farmer’s Assoc.
• Ag Research
• Local NGOs
• Intl Dev Orgs
• Financial institutions
• Extension Workers
Information Needs
• Sowing date
• Preparation advice
• Soil fertility advice
• Pest and disease management advice
Data Sources
• Rainfall forecasts
• Cultivation best practices
• Soil information service
Providers
• Agric Ministry
• Farmer’s Association
• Ag Research
• Extension Workers
Information Needs
• Pest and disease mitigation advice
• Crop management advice
• Irrigation advice
Data Sources
• Pest and disease monitoring and forecasts
• Rainfall forecasts
Providers
• Farmer’s associations
• Other Gov
• Ag Research
• Local NGOs
• Extension Workers
Information Needs
• Price
• Storage cost and availability
• Transport cost and availability
Data Sources
• Storage, market and trade hub locations
• Market prices and storage costs
Providers
• Financial institutions
• Farmer’s Assoc.
• Ag Research
• Local NGOs
• Extension workers
Information Needs
• Price
• Market/trader location
• Travel cost and availability
Data Sources
• Market prices by location and product
• Travel cost surface
Providers
• Extension workers
• Other Gov
• Local NGOs
• Financial Institutions
Information that helps smallholder
farmers
Strengthening agriculture value chains
– Inputs (seed, fertilizer and pesticide)
– Market intelligence
Selection of appropriate crops
– Soil data
– Rainfall
Support for crop management
– Location and crop specific cultivation advice
– Early warning systems for pests and disease
– Climate change and rainfall predictability
18
Building trust with farmers is critical to their
acceptance of information
Challenges exist to provide
information to help farmers
Current data is not provided in map- or time-scales
that are relevant to farmer
Lack of effective networks and channels to
disseminate information to farmers
– Government extension agents are not working
Land tenure issues make it difficult for farmers to
invest in their land
– Electricity for charging cell phones in rural areas
needs to be provided for (solar solutions)
Many past efforts didn’t last past project funding
Local languages
19
Challenges for Women Farmers
Providing information to women farmers is
difficult and requires special focus
– Men own the radios and the cell phones
– Men attend the farmers meetings
– Most women farmers are illiterate
Cultural aspects of engaging women
farmers, especially in Mali and Burkina Faso
20
How AGCommons will help address
these challenges
Build shared platform
– Hosting for data dissemination
– Core location services
– Access to low-cost and high-resolution imagery for a
variety of applications
Develop dissemination channels
– Build upon existing information networks and
infrastructure
– Spatially enable information dissemination
– Create SMS interfaces for information delivery and
collection to and from farmers
Specific Projects 21
Potential AGCommons projects
Convening on market intelligence
– Adding location intelligence to existing systems
– Scaling out and replicating local successes
regionally
Plot level mapping
– Using imagery and GPS to map specific
cropping systems critical for food security or
highly susceptible to climate stress
– Direct reduction of farmers’ costs by knowing
accurate acreage for services they paid for
22
Potential AGCommons projects
Land use map at a scale relevant to farmers
to help manage conflicts at the national level
Agricultural atlas
– Assemble layers specifically relevant to
farmer decision-making
– Identify and prioritize gaps for further data
development
Potential site-specific projects
23
Rehabilitation of cocoa farms in
eastern region of Ghana
Information
Farm location
Area under cultivation
No of trees per farm
Soil information
Age class of trees
Location of marketing
centers (depots)
Location of social
amenities
Communication Channels
Extension services
– spatial analysis to
reinvigorate extension
resources
FM radio station
Farmer field schools
Video viewing centers
24
Support for women Fisher-woman
in coastal Ghana
Information
Market information
– Where to sell/buy
– Price in various markets
(major)
– Market demand
Location of storage
facilities
– Distance to nearest facility
– Charges
– Conditions
Communication Channels
Farmers associations
SMS through mobile
phones
Farmer representatives
25
Develop a women’s producer
association in Nyamina, Mali
Information
Transportation
networks
Location of
microfinance
institutions
Location of storage
facilities
Communication Channels
Develop local
information centers
Monthly meetings
26
Rationale: women farmers lack information on choice
of seeds / varieties and on fruit / vegetable storage
methods
Discussion
27
Mapping Parties
Mapping Parties and Crowdsource Capacity
Building
– Organize 3-5 informal mapping parties
representing West, East and Southern
Africa to map roads and agriculture
features
– Build capacity and act as catalyst to
dormant GIS communities across Africa.
28
Hosting Extensions
Develop Extensions into Shared Hosting
– Read/Write capabilities from international
SMS shortcodes
– Develop repository for crowd mapping and
other location based data.
– Publish shared web services
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Geospatial Interoperability
Develop geospatial publishing
– Write data directly from GIS clients (ESRI,
uDig, Other) to Geonetwork metadata portal.
– Publish and read directly to GIEWS
Workstation
– Publish and read directly from AgroMaps
– Publish and read directly from shared hosting
environment
30
Agriculture Mobile Services
Agriculture Geospatial Information Services for SSA
– Develop “location intelligence” services and APIs that
provide core functions for location referencing and
spatial analyses
– Create SMS interface to services both for information
delivery to farmers and information collection from
farmers
– Provide localized versions of products in national
languages
– Distribution of datasets and training at CLICs and
ABIPs
– Capacity building and training programs to support
use and maintenance. 31