Presented as part of the seminar: Can mobile phones improve agricultural productivity, resilience and food security? 29th May 2012, 08.30 - 12.30 Hörsalen, Sida, Valhallavägen 199, Stockholm Daniel Ninsiima, Mobile Specialist, L3F Uganda Traditional Agricultural Extension Services (AES) intended to serve smallholder farmers in Uganda and Sub-Saharan Africa at large have failed to make significant impacts (Jones, 2007), due partly to the lack of knowledge-sharing practices to disseminate timely agricultural information.. A key problem has been inadequate access to information due to weak linkages and interactions between agricultural research, extension and education, including, 1) the lack of knowledge and information articulating best practices and addressing interconnected socio-economic development issues such as agriculture, education, health, culture and the environment; and 2) a deficiency of relevant research information presented in easy to understand ways and localized to the needs and language of farmers. However, the growing ubiquity of mobile phones presents an excellent opportunity to put timely agriculture information into the hands of small holder farmers which will ultimately make them more productive and increase their income levels.

1. MAKING ICT WORK FOR AGRICULTURE:
USING THE MOBILE PHONE AS LEARNING
TOOL FOR RURAL FARMING COMMUNITIES
IN UGANDA
Daniel, Ninsiima
Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute
Kabanyolo
P.O Box 7062, Kampala
Uganda
Email: dninsiima@gmail.com
Tel: +256712035192,

2. ICT for Agriculture

3. ABOUT THE L3F INITIATIVE
 Lifelong Learning for Farmers (L3 Farmers) demonstrates
Commom Wealth of Learning's (COL) ability to partner with
communities and organisations, and make effective use of ICTs to
facilitate learning for development
 Aims at helpig rural communities find appropriate technology-
based open and distance education to improve their livelihoods
 The programme is a response to a critical need: the wealth of
information resulting from agricultural research and development
often fails to travel the last mile to the villages of the developing
world where it is most needed

4. L3F LINKING SECTOR PLAYERS
THROUGH ICT

5. EXTENSION CHALLENGES IN
UGANDA
 highly understaffed with one extension educator required to serve up
to46,000 farmers and yet poorly paid
 Lack of relevant research information presented in an easy to
understand manner and localized to the needs of local small holder
farmers
 Lack of knowledge and information articulating best practices and
addressing interconnected socio-economic development issues
including agriculture, education, health, culture and the
environment.

6. Diverse enterprises on the same piece of land
6

7. ICT FOR AGRICULTURE
Uganda’s communications sector is one of the fastest growing in
Africa. As in the rest of the continent, this is largely due to the
rapid expansion of mobile telephony.
Mobile telephone subscribers rose well over 14 million by the
end of 2011— up from more than 9.4 million in December 2009 —
which is about one-third of the country’s population.

8. Uganda Fixed & Mobile Subscriptions & Penetration,
2010/11
Source: UCC , Post and Telecommunications Annual Market Review
2010/2011

9. POPULATION COVERED BY MOBILE CELLULAR NETWORKS IN
UGANDA (%)
(Source: TradingEconomics.com)

10. M-LEARNING FOR AGRICULTURE
EXTENSION
In 2009 COL conducted an information needs asessment
survey to find out the sources of agriculture extension
information, means of access and several other
Parameters

11. ACCESS TO EXTENSION INFORMATION
80
70
60
50
Percentage (%)
Access
40
No Access
30
20
10
0
Soil & water seed & planting Pest & disease Post harvest Product Record keeping Leadership &
conservation materials management handling marketing & financial team work
management
Kind of Information

12. SOURCES OF AGRICULTURE INFORMATION
Source of information Response %
Radio 136 65.07
Television 1 0.48
Mobile phones 5 2.39
News papers 11 5.26
Other written materials 6 2.87
Word of mouth 50 23.92
Internet 0 0.00

13. INFORMATION NEEDS
Soil fertility technologies 20
Market Information 35
Fertilizers (% yes) 11
Soil and water technologies 10
Crop management technologies 14
Crop variety technologies 9
Livestock improved breeds 1

14. OBJECTIVES OF THE SERVICE
 innovativly use information and
communication technology systems
especially the mobile phone to complement
the conventional agricultural extension
system;
 Use the mobile phone to enable free flow of
agriculturally related information and
knowledge within and between farmers and
extension workers using cost effective
communication technologies in a sound
sustaunabe social enterprise; and
 Translate available research content into
local dialects and disseminate information to
farmers in languages they can understand

15. SHORT MESSAGING SERVICE (SMS)
“Use neem tree leaves to keep your grain safe: Dry the leaves, grind them and
mix with the grain in the bags that you want to store”
“Use tobacco to control spidermites in tomatoes and borer in cabbage. Grind
the leaves, mix with ash and soap water. Let it stay for a night, sift and
Spray”

16. COSTS OF THE SERVICE
 Retrieving a message through a Seected Farmers’ questions
keyword or sending questions “256751688459 L3f ndahinga emondi
to the system through sms costs zayenda kurabya zome kiraretwaki”
220/= shs ($ 0.08) and and for meaning what causes my potatoes to
each sms 50/= shs ($0.02) is wilt at a time when they start
credited to us flowering and another asks
“ “256785037138 L3F uganda okubyara
emondi mu layini kirayongyera
 The farmer gets instant advice
ahamusharyro?” meaning does
which saves his crops and gets
planting my potatoes in lines
a good yield. They will now
increase yeild?
need accurate information on
the changing market prices so
they can get a good price.
 The farmer will always come
back since seasons keep
changing and his information
needs keep changing as well

18. CHALLENGES OF SMS/ RELEVANCE OF VOICE
 Limitation to 160 characaties for text based Mesages
 Very many are illitrate and cannot retrieve text mesages
from their phones
 Farmers are more comfortable with voice than text

19. INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE/AUDIO
MESSAGING

20. IN THE FARMERS’ OWN WORDS
“We have more than 46,000 farmers in our sub-county but we have only
one extension officer to serve all of them. Yet, farmers have diverse
enterprises which an extension officer may not handle even if he reached
them.” Apollo Kaboroga of Kacerere village in Bufundi Sub-county says
He continues to say, “through the mobile phone, i have been able to get
more income from my potatoes since the information provided helps us to
link directly with buyers in Kampala. I can now sell a bag of potatoes for as
much as 80,000 thousand shillings compared to the paltry 50,000 or
sometimes 40,000 shs middlemen paid by taking advantage of our
ignorance of market prices

22. About the system
 Benefited 1,000 famers
since 2009
 The voice messaging
 Content sent twice a week application has been tested
with over 500 farmers and
 Farmers ask questions in the first month of its
anytime anywhere operation, we recieved over
100 user calls
 Content retrieved
automatically using  Call costs 180-240 Ughs
keywords
 SMS system sustians itself
through a share revenue
agreement with the SMS
company

23. SCALING UP THE SERVICE/CHALLENGES
 Investing in more equipment to handle more calls at a time
since the current GSM device can only handle one call at a
time and clogs up the system when more users are trying to
access the service. An alternative power source is needed to
have the system available 24/7 even when there is a power
outage
 Promoting the service through available media options like
radio and print to attract usage and make more farmers
aware of the service and how they can access it. This will
attract more traffic to the service and create a more
sustainable venture

24. CONTINUED....
 Training is needed in professional audio and text content
development. There is also need to link with researchers and
scientists so they can provide feedback to farmer queries as
soon as they come in.
 Intergration of the service in research systems and
government extension systems. This can be done through
the national agricultural research organisation (NARO) and
national agricultural advisory services (NAADS)
organisations that are responsible for research and extension
in Uganda.
 Bringing telecom companies on board to agree on a revenue
share agreement as means of sustaining the initiative.
Telecom companies could provide a waiver to farmers
making calls to the service to make it more affordable

25. KIGEZI HIGHLANDS