e-Farming

Much has been said about the revelation that mobile telephony and mobile commerce has been in sub-Saharan Africa, this success story tells many tales of poverty alleviation amongst the common folk in even the most remote of Africa’s villages.

Complimentary industries have leveraged on the success of the mobile telephony sector, mostly due to mobile telephony’s ability to reach remote areas which the traditional developmental vehicles have for many generations failed to reach.

As an example, Whilst relatives in the diaspora use costly sophisticated banking systems to send money back home, the affluent inhabitants of the vibrant cities of Africa use mobile money platforms at minimal costs to send cash to their unbanked relatives in the villages across the continent. This is indeed a success story that shows that Africa does possess the know-how to solve its own problems.

However, Africa’s major problems remain; Poverty, Disease and poor Governance (PDG), however it is also a fact that Africa has enormous arable land on which it can farm and potentially solve the challenge of poverty whilst leveraging on a true African success story, “Mobile Telephony”.

The Zambian Farmer

Whilst it is undeniable that the production capacity of the mechanized commercial farmer is indispensable, the bulk of Zambia’s farming activities are carried out by small scale farmers on much smaller pieces of land using traditional farming methods passed down from generation to generation.

This approach to agriculture has for many generations been devoid of a business motive hence the need for excess production has never been given the importance today’s reality requires. The modern day reality brings forth large populations in urban areas, with even higher population growth rates. Unlike the small scale village set up of farmers, the culture of the everyday urban dweller does not include the growing of own food, rather depending on their higher earning power to buy agricultural produce for their consumption.

Ofcourse,the modern lifestyle also means the small scale village based farmer also requires a certain amount of liquidity in order to access other basic essentials of life e.g medical care, education etc. This supply gap on both ends of the population spectrum(education, medical etc for small scale village farmers, agricultural produce for urban dwellers) has made the relationship between small scale farmers and the urban dwellers one of necessitity,hence the need for extra agricultural production on the part of small scale farmers, cannot be over emphasized.

Statistical Gap

It is however almost impossible to get unshakable facts about say, how many Maize growing small scale farmers we have every year, what their yield is, what the exact size of their land is, what were their costs of production, what variety of Maize did they grow and why etc. These are statistics one cannot ran away from if they are to properly plan produce or inputs to satisfy a certain population level. It must be stated that through various programs, government and cooperating partners have for many years made efforts to remedy this area. A defining guidance on how to approach this still remains elusive. A number of companies have painstakingly designed their own models on how to deal with this scatter of small scale farming practices in order to promote specific crops. This extra effort in organizing this sector has led to increased costs of the final produce to the urban consumer.

Aside the organizational activities, these players in this sector have had to source own capital against which they have taken huge financial risks mostly based only on a farmers promise and a cultural agricultural cycle. This “promise” from the farmers, has however proved insufficient for the commercial banks that have since stayed away from the collateral deficient small scale farmers.

The absence of credible data also makes the analysis of farmer risk downright impossible hence the traditional approaches in accessing credit or the market for farm produce are scarcely available to this group of farmers

Farming Technology

Technology in farming has reached such advanced levels that when specifics in terms of size, latitude and longitude, type of crops etc. are known; it is possible to calculate the exact amount of fertilizers or other nutrients a farmer would have to add to his/her crop to ensure favorable yields. Further, it would equally be possible to know the common plant diseases in the area and the type of treatments required to fend off an attack.

This would then make it possible to access further information such as i.e the nearest source for fungi or herbicides, fertilizers, market for produce etc.

It is very easy for the everyday small scale farmer to dismiss all these as commercial farmer concerns; however, these are usually the reasons why commercial farmer yields are higher than those for small scale farmers. It is simply an efficient use of ones land to achieve the best possible yield.

Tele-Farming

Whilst it is encouraged for small scale farmers to transition into commercial farmers, one does not have to be a commercial farmer to capture the required statistics and achieve yields commercial farmers are accustomed to.

An African solution, born from mobile telephony has been employed in other parts of Africa to provide details of size, coordinates of the land, crops grown, rainfall patterns and accessibility to market for produce, among other details.

To avoid oversimplifying this matter, note must be made that a geo-mapping project must be  carried out by professional surveyors to capture GPS locations for participating farmers, these farmers would then need to have access to a mobile phone platform (similar to that for mobile money),provide ownership details of their arable land, the crops they grow, inputs they use etc.

The mobile phone platform would then provide farmers with latest weather forecasts, prices of various farm produce and respective markets, agricultural technical details on seeds types, fertilizer types, sources and prices for inputs etc all via the use of a USSD code which does not require internet connectivity.

In Kenya, an interactive mobile platform,”M-shamba”  gives farmers information/data through even the most basic of mobile phones whilst making use of both smart and non-smart handset capabilities, SMS etc. It provides information such as production,harvesting,credit weather,marketing,climate,disease infestation, best routes to market etc.It customizes this information for farmers based on location, crop/animal etc 

http://www.mshamba.net/ and http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2013/11/top-10-mobile-agriculture-applications/

Mobile telephony ingenuity regards farming practices across the African continent provide the evidence that with structured guidance, the small scale farmers are more than able to not only increase their production, but also improve their yield per hectare.

Local Example

Whilst the above examples have leveraged on mobile telephony, despite having 3 mobile telecommunications companies on the market, Zambia is yet to develop a go-to mobile platform for small scale farmers. This void has however been exploited by other small scale farmers that have taken advantage of a common social media platform to create a group for small scale farmers where ideas and knowledge are exchanged. Small Scale Farmers, a Facebook group has grown at record speed in the recent past. Its growth rate is evidence of the fact that small scale farmers have a huge desire to improve their practices and access different markets when empowered with the right information.

The interesting fact about this group is that it is not run by technocrats but rather small scale farmers themselves, with free membership for all who share this passion for farming. Questions are tabled by any member and answers are provided by any member based on own experience or knowledge.

Economic Diversification/Conclusion

This has been the slogan of a great many of Zambia’s leaders and just as many have failed to make this a reality. The Small Scale Farmers group has shown the example that the powers that be need to take in order to make significant strides towards realizing the dream of making Zambia a food basket.Organisation!! These farmers have organized themselves and from their interaction have provided vital data that has definitely gone a long way in improving yields and general production. Mobile telephony and the internet have provided the platform for these farmers to organize, imagine how much they would achieve if they had a nationwide government backed policy and framework that leverages on the internet and mobile telephony, providing cost effective access to mobile telephony, free internet connectivity to agricultural support platforms with region and crop specific technical know-how, weather, pricing, input support etc e.g. via such infrastructure as internet.org,

References

1.    http://www.mshamba.net/ and http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2013/11/top-10-mobile-agriculture-applications/

2.    Small Scale Farmers(Farming as a business) https://www.facebook.com/groups/635862666442657/?fref=nf

3.    Internet.org by Facebook https://internet.org/press/introducing-the-internet-dot-org-app