1st Kenya eDairy Conference, 2010Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya
Is ICT Adoption for Agriculture still
an Important Issue? (Dairy - An innovation case study)
Ehud Gelb
Center for Agricultural Economic Research
Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in
Science and Technologies
Major Goals
Review issues and options for ICT adoption in Dairy/Agriculture
Elicit Ideas to take home
Precision Agriculture 1991 Perspective
2010- 2014 ICT supports three major dairy domains
• National/International programs (policies, standards, tracability, coherence,
training , funding) • Local/Regional collaboration
(training, standards, funding,profit) • Production/Processing units
sustainabiliy, standards, income, coherence
1st Kenya eDairy Conference
• In Kenya the dairy industry is the most advanced of the livestock subsectors.
• Kenya's dairy industry is dominated by smallholders with over 75% of the industry's total output.
• Four Major issues: Financing; training, tracability, processing oversupply
http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/ILRI/x5485E/x5485e0o.htm
CIA: Agriculture 75% of the labor force, 20% GDP
Regarding all the three domains What is ICT facilitating today?
• Doing the same BUT more efficiently• Integrating more partners, faster, Connectivity• Integrating more parameters - over time,
horizontally, vertically (F2F), rural communities• Finds, evaluates, transfers, manages, integrates
and defines data/information/knowledge from and to scientists and end users
• Provides innovative technologies and methods• Automatic decision making (are they better
decisions?)• Establishes (and eliminates) “Digital Divides”
(ICT) innovation in rural areas is now not only a “computer issue”
or a “farmer” and dairy/agricultural production concern.
A traditional milking unit
Earliest visible Mastitis detection
Afimilk ICT information system
Earlier Mastitis detection via E/C
ICT E/C Monitoring Benefits
Afimilk Group(191 Cows)
Control Group(193 Cows)
Significance
Milk Yield(Kg/lactation)
(305 DIM)10690 10317 P<0.05
Avg. Loss in Milk productionPer Infection (Kg)
44.8 65.1 P<0.05
Prevented Milk Loss (Kg) per Cow/Lactation
383 --- ---
Questionnaire summary: Is ICT Innovation Adoption for Agriculture still an Important Issue?
Montpellier2001
Wageningen 2009
Is ICT Adoption still a problem? 53.2% 90.3%
Factors Limiting ICT Adoption
TrainingCostUnperceived benefit
20%32.3% 27.6%
58%29.0%25.8%
Should public funds help to finance Information Technology Services for farmers
67.8% 82.2%
Farm Computer Usage and OwnershipUnited States 1997 - 2009
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Computer Access
Own or Lease
Use for FarmBusiness
Internet Access
Percent of Farms
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
All 3: Where to put the Money
easy to reach
What do they need?
Are Dairy ICT Innovation
Challenges Unique?
Is ICT adoption in Agriculture/Dairy Evolution or Intentional Design?
• Are rural ICT agri-business issues special;
• Is ICT Adoption different than adopting other Technologies and/or innovations;
• Are both of public interest and/or funding;
• Who are the “agents of change”;
• See the roles of Community (village, farmer organization), economic viability, agricultural production, gender, politics, entrepreneurship, etc
General Innovation Adoption Issues
• Still learning some of the earlier lessons• Despite developments in technology the
uptake of ICT has largely plateaued • Disparities within the digital divide is not
going away• Access to ICT is not enough – e.g. a large
proportion of non-users of the internet reside in connected households.
• ICT innovations are a tool and not an end.
People Issues• ICT is not just about technology it is about People• Listen, listen, listen and understand• Innovation adoption must have effective support
of the rural and agricultural communities • ICTs will not necessarily change the lifestyles of
the rural communities. They might introduce new methods of doing the established activities
• Strong leadership from the village/community is essential for the success of any ICT innovation adoption project
People issues – Digital Exclusion• There is a demonstrable correlation between
social and digital exclusion• A significant proportion of the digitally excluded
are at risk of deepening exclusion• Digital exclusion is also unlikely to disappear
over time through demographic developments• Need to start from understanding the case for
digital inclusion – the link with social inclusion• Digital exclusion is unlikely to be adequately
addressed in isolation from other policy areas. • Penetration by market forces is unlikely to
eliminate digital exclusion.
ICT Reality Today:
Top-down Outside-in
“The fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid – . Eradicating poverty Through Profits” (C.K.Prahalad – Wharton School Publishing,2004)
References• Measuring the benefit of a computer in the milking parlor:
http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-measuring-7.pdf
• NOA - A Management Information System for the National Dairy and Beef Herdshttp://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-noa.pdf
• ICT in the Dairy Farm systemhttp://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-farming-6.pdf
• ICT in Agriculture: Perspectives of Technological Innovation http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-main.html
• Gelb, E., Kislev, Y., 1982. “Farmers' Financing of Agricultural Research in Israel”. Research Policy, 11, 321.
• USDA 2009 - Farm Computer Usage and Ownership http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/mannUsda/viewDocumentinfo.do?documentID=1062
• Israel Dairy Board http://www.pagegangster.com/p/gKIfb
THANK YOU
The
International Dairy
Federation
and the
Israel Dairy Board
Welcome you to the
2014 World Dairy
Summit
in Israel