Can SMS, IVR and apps enhance organic farming practices in Africa?
2023
Ulmann, Selina | Gräub, Benjamin | Maiyo, Faith | Dusabe, Lise | Labarthe, Pierre
Over the last three years, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), together with partners in Kenya, Rwanda, Mali and Senegal has accumulated a wide range of knowledge on how simple technologies can be used to improve access to organic farming knowledge by smallholder farmers. Over 4400 smallholder farmers in Kenya and Rwanda received SMS-based and app-based training on organic agriculture. This presentation showcases the experiences and derived recommendations for the use of digital technologies for capacity development of smallholder farmers in East Africa. Traditional farmer training and farmer field schools are hugely important in farmer education, but many farmers do not have access to them and its high costs limit their scaling. SMS-based or app-based training, as well as training via interactive voice response (IVR), can be a useful addition that are comparatively inexpensive and can more easily reach a large number of farmers. Raspberry Pi computers are found not suitable for farmer training. This work provides insights into the potential of phones, smartphones, tablets, (OTG) USB sticks and Raspberry Pi computers to improve farmer access to information and training on organic agriculture practices and to promote the growth of organic agriculture in East Africa and beyond. We will highlight the principal aspects when planning, developing and implementing digital trainings for farmers smallholder farmers in Africa.
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