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
