Presentation by Mary Nakirya (BROSDI) for the Open Data @ Work: Agriculture & Nutrition session at the Africa Open Data Conference (AODC) in Dar es Salaam, 5 September 2015.

1. RESPONSIBLE USE OF
FARMER'S DATA
Sharing the CELAC experience
By Nakirya Mary

2. Introduction
 What is data? Open Data?
 What is meant by Nutrition?
 Who is CELAC?
Results – Sharing CELAC experience
 Positive
 Negative
Essence of Food Nutrition Data to a Farmer
Trend of Presentation…

3. Open data is data that can be freely used, re-used
and redistributed by anyone who needs it.
Agriculture data should be accessible and usable by
all farmers at no or minimal cost.
Data meant for farmers should be available without
requiring software purchases
What is data?

4. The process of providing or obtaining the food necessary for health
and growth. Good nutrition means getting the right amount of
nutrients from healthy foods in the right combinations
Sharing quotations
 “Across African Continent, 12 Africans die every minute as a result of
hunger and malnutrition” - Jay Naidoo, chair of the Global Alliance for
Improved Nutrition
 “people..don’t die of hunger, rather from acute malnutrition and/or
related diseases” - Kerstin Hanson, a malnutrition expert at Médecins
Sans Frontières
 To read about global facts on malnutrition:
http://www.gainhealth.org/knowledge-centre/fast-facts-malnutrition/
IF ALL FARMERS IN AFRICA GOT NUTRITION DATA,THE RATE AT WHICH
THEY DIE OF “HUNGER” WOULD BE REDUCED BY FAR.
The Case of Nutrition…

5. In full: Collecting and exchange of Local Agriculture Content
Have direct presence in 14 districts, secondary presence in 52 districts
The project has collected indigenous farming information of over 50 crop
types and 15 livestock types
All this information is given to farmers who need it free without any
conditions
Methods we use to disseminate data to farmers
 Traditional methods
 Village Notice Boards
 Gatherings
• Annual Knowledge Fair
• Monthly Farmers Knowledge Sharing Meetings
 Modern methods
 Radio:
 Brochures: written out and distributed to farmers
 Mobile phones (SMS & Phone Calls) sent out once a week to registered farmers
 Information website and blog
About CELAC

6.  Our farmers own the data they create
 We commit to providing basic data to farmers free of charge and
encourage them to share their data across other platforms freely
 Project site (www.celac.or.ug) used for posting Agriculture
information and tools which can be used to access free information
 We have a Blog (http://celac.wordpress.com) where farmers and staff
post articles on Agriculture and nutrition which is accessible globally
 We print for those who cannot access the internet and post on village
notice boards.
 For farmers who cannot post, we post for them and acknowledge the
author.
 If there are questions to the post, we telephone the author, read the
question and the response is again typed on behalf of the author
 All our data is validated by National Agricultural Research
organization, the government research arm
…our agricultural data

7. Improved Food security
Household Incomes increased
Adoption of a more positive behavioral change
See our success stories online platform:
http://successtories.wordpress.com
There was a positive change in the farmers
livelihoods at home and in their communities …
Positive Outcomes of data to
farmers

8. … however, the Children and
Mothers are still suffering
from Malnutrition related
illnesses because we did not
have enough nutrition data
FACT: “you can pack the stomach of a child with wheat and water, he won’t
be hungry but he will become malnourished because of the lack of
proteins, vitamins and minerals” - Jane Howard, a spokesman for the World
Food Programme

9. Diseases
 Kwashiorkor among the children
 Anemia especially among children and pregnant mothers
 Preventable blindness
 Slower wound healing
 General body weakness and unexplained fatigue
 Lung pains
 Chronic kidney failure especially among the adults
 Inflammatory bowel disease
 Poor development of teeth
 Bone pains among the adults
 Slower brain development and nervous system functioning
Common consequences of malnutrition
cited amongst our farmers…

10. Persistent absence of children from school
 because they are ill
 Leads to poor grades, lower chances of better jobs & hence
back to poverty
Loss of farming seasons because the family has no energy
to go and till the land and/or look after the livestock
Unnecessary loss of income because the family has to hire
outside labor
common consequences of malnutrition
cited amongst our farmers … contd

11. Mothers give birth to low weight babies making them
more susceptible to new born deaths
Infectious diseases like measles is common because
many of the children did not have the right nutrition
in the very earliest parts of their lives
common consequences of malnutrition
cited amongst our farmers … contd

12. Open data is more relevant to farmers if they
are part of data processing procedures
Data to be used by farmers need to be
validated so as they don’t loose seasons
When involved in an agricultural project,
NEVER forget the nutrition factor
Lessons learnt…

13. *end*