Communication to energise agriculture

The saying, 'What you see depends on where you stand' was never more true than with the new information and communication technologies. These ICTs are transforming information and communication management (ICM) for those favoured by access and able to afford them, but for those excluded from access, effective ICM remains a frustrating dream. Sub-Saharan Africa is most seriously affected by the so-called 'digital divide', but there are positive signs that some governments, international organisations and commercial companies are striving to bridge the gap.

However, one of the major obstacles to change is not the technology itself but attitudes among managers and policy makers. Those attitudes are based on lack of information and knowledge, and clearly a priority is to develop better communication with those who make decisions and put them into effect. A significant step towards this was a week-long seminar held in Maputo in November. Titled 'Role of information and communication tools in food and nutrition security in Africa', it was hosted by CTA (Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation in EU-ACP countries), the Government of Mozambique and the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. The context outlined for the 80 participants, from some 20 African countries, was that currently one in four Africans is seriously malnourished - 200 million in total - and the number has doubled in the last 30 years. Worse still, declining soil fertility, HIV-AIDS and continuing civil strife are widening the gap between the continent's food needs and what it can provide for itself. The seminar's objective was to examine how ICTs could be used more effectively to reverse Africa's catastrophically declining capacity to feed itself.

ICTs - a window for Africa?

"In Africa we do not yet enjoy ICTs to improve our standard of living, but we recognise their potential. ICTs can accelerate development in many areas, not least in training a critical mass of people to effect change, for market information, and in exchanging ideas between countries in a region. Falling cost of information technology opens a window for Africa," was a statement read on behalf of President Joaquim Chissano by Professor Firmino Mucavele of Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo. But the Professor also provided sobering statistics that stand between the President's vision and its implementation: worldwide, Africa has only 2 per cent of telephone lines, less than 1 per cent of internet hosts, 0.2 per cent of fax machines and 0.4 per cent of content on the Web. Further, the internet connection cost in Africa is 20 per cent of GDP per capita, compared with 1% for high-income countries.

Despite this lack of infrastructure and high cost, case studies of several African countries demonstrated how ICTs are already being used very successfully to provide market, meteorological and pest and disease information to rural people. The Kenya Agricultural Commodity Exchange (KACE) has pioneered a private commercial Market Information System (MIS) using the radio, cellphones and an interactive voice-response telephone service to provide market information to smallholder farmers. "A major lesson is that knowledge is power," said Dr Adrian Mukhebi, Executive Director of KACE. "Smallholder farmers are being empowered to bargain for better prices." The evidence of the impact of these services is the increasing number of people using KACE services, the 22 per cent higher value of maize traded through KACE, and declining differences in prices between different markets. Also, with access to information increasing their confidence, more women are participating in commodity trading.

In Uganda, liberalisation of laws affecting telecommunications has opened the way for private investment, leading to a second fixed-line provider and three cellular telephone providers. As a result, since 1997 the tele-density has risen ten-fold from 1 per 1000 to 1 per 100, and the situation is being exploited by farmers' associations through radio, tele-centres and the internet. Similarly in Mali, liberalisation of telecommunications has transformed the rural communication scene. The Projet Pasdima coordinates 25 data collection units around the country, which feed topical agriculture-related information to one of the several community radio stations that broadcast in local languages to their communities. All data centres and radio stations are now networked with computers and modems for easy communication. As a result, farmers get information before they go to market and are able to negotiate better prices.

From Mali to Mozambique

Mozambique was also able to share its experience of the government-created Mozambique Agricultural Service (SIMA), which collects information on a weekly basis and disseminates it through radio, TV, press, email and the web. Again, farmers using the service were found to get higher value sales. Mozambique is also piloting a satellite digital radio service for remote communities not covered by terrestrial radio transmissions. The RANET project uses World Space digital technology to upload information to a satellite, from which signals are received by a digital radio and rebroadcast through an FM transmitter with a 100 km wide coverage. Information is broadcast in local languages, with priority given to weather reports and warnings, and information relevant to women, who are often heads of rural households.

Despite its value, information on the internet can be difficult to find and confusing to interpret. "What we are looking for is a portal that gives access to the food and nutrition information sites in and for Africa, to give African researchers and policymakers a one-stop, multi-language site," explained Professor Michael Weber of Michigan State University, as he introduced the Food Security Information Portal for Africa (FSIP). Pan-African coverage is being achieved through a number of regional networks coordinated by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

"ICTs must be regarded as a tool, and these tools are not a luxury. There must be full knowledge of these tools at the various levels involved in food distribution," concluded Professor Venancio Massingue of Mozambique in his presentation. But tools are only as good as the people who use them, and Dr Andrew Temu of Sokoine University, Tanzania, lamented that many African graduates, even in the food and nutrition sector, leave university without IT and ICM skills. He and several other speakers called for governments to take a leading role in the revolution towards wider and more effective use of ICTs since, without government support, there will not be the required investment in skills and human resources. "We have to deal with politicians if we want our ICT to work, but we academics fail to develop our messages in ways that the politicians understand," admonished one speaker. Nevertheless, encouraging news is that to-date, major projects for ICT infrastructure have been authorised by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), with up to 30 per cent funded by African governments. This must be acknowledged as a promising start.