Production and Market information for small holder farmers in Northern Uganda Using Mobiles and Radio to access Market prices Farmer Field school experiences in Amuru and Nwoya districts Presentation by J.C. Achora – WOUGNET

ICTs can help farmers if the focus is on the people & their needs And Not on technology 2

Why ICT applications in agriculture? Market price information Live market feeds Product visibility Agricultural advisory services Linking farmers to buyers, producers & input suppliers Linkages from local to global market trends 3

Mobile applications Partnerships: FIT Uganda Ltd & FAOTraining FFS in sms use 4 SMS (Short Text Messages) to access market information from infotrade by sending text to 8555 or from service providers such as MTN and WARID networks. service cost 220 Ug shs per msg Web2Phone: market information is transferred from the web to the mobile phone

Blackboard at Gulu main market Farmers use this blackboard to promote their products by posting their commodities, the prices, quantity, their location and Telephone numbers – content posted free of charges

Mobile applications cont Mobile applications are subscription based and this poses a challenges to farmers i.e cost effectiveness limited content and information. Data has to be collected and the databases updated regularly as commodity prices keep changing. Where data has successfully been used in mobile applications eg Grameen Foundation. Content is in English. 6

Training an integral component of applying ICTs 7

Radio talk shows Radio talk shows have proved to be an interactive platforms where farmers interact with the wider community and market linkages formed Also the point where mobile phones & radio interact 8

Radio Cassettes 9 Rural women farmers – listening club

Rural information centres Apac & Amuru 10 By placing RIC in communities Removing barriers to information and making it publically available

Community meetings 11 Target group: Farmers in the community

Websites 12 Online sources of information

Lessons Learnt Though a number of the farmers could conceptualize the use of the mobile phone to get access to markets by the end of the pilot phase, none of them had used the phone to get market. Asked why, they said they needed money quickly Collaborations/partnerships are important drivers for success.

Lessons How do farmers fare after such interventions? will farmers use the skills gained to inform which enterprise to engage in during the next season and get markets? Perception, attitude and Change. The Rural farmers perception to the potential of ICTs remain a big challenge to e- Agriculture

Conclusion Expose small scale farmers to a wide variety of ICT innovations and demonstrate their potential. Expose farmers to ICT applications for small holder inclusion in the agribusiness supply chain Broaden small holders access to financial services through ICTs. 15

Conclusion Strengthen the Farmer Associations/Group marketing associations with ICT skills Great need for Information needs assessment of farmers – design & delivery of products and services

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