This document summarizes Biovision Foundation's expertise with mobile and web technologies to improve agricultural practices in Africa. Biovision uses a magazine, radio show, Facebook page, and SMS service to share information with farmers. They equip extension workers with smartphones and tablets to interact with farmers. Biovision is researching conditions needed for the "Silicon Savannah" in Kenya, including skills, policies, infrastructure to support business process outsourcing and technology growth. Their work informs prospects for increasing Internet and mobile usage in Africa.

1. Annual Conference of the International Network for Postgraduate
Students in the Area of ICT4D, 12-13 September 2011, Lugano
Mobile and web technologies in Africa: An NGOʻs
expertise and research on „Silicon Savannah“
Christoph Hess (MA)
mail@christophhess.ch
@christophhess
christoph.m.hess
www.slideshare.net/christophhess
www.delicious.com/christophhess/ipid2011

3. Biovision Foundation is a Swiss non-governmental
organization with the mission of sustainably improving life for
people in Africa while conserving the environment as the basis
for all life. It was founded in 1998 by Swiss World Food Prize
recipient, Dr. Hans Rudolf Herren, currently President of the
Millenium Institute.
Biovisionʻs Farmer Communication Programme (FCP) in
Africa pursues a theory of change which postulates that
ecologically sustainable solutions are a practical alternative for
African farmers to achieve good crop yields without using
expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The theory is
based on a 4H approach: Animal Health (AH), Environmental
Health (EH), Human Health (HH) and Plant Health (PH).

4. Mkulima Mbunifu is
TOFʻs Swahili
The Organic version for
Farmer (TOF) is a Tanzania. Started in
monthly magazine. July 2011 with
Started in 2005, 5ʻ000 copies.
Pictures: Biovision
21ʻ000 copies and
180ʻ000 readers in
Kenya.

5. John Cheburet
produces TOF
Pictures: Biovision
Radio since 2008.
The weekly show
on KBC Kiswahili
Service has up to 5
million listeners.

6. Picture: www.facebook.com/organicfarmer
Facebook allows
real-time inter-
action. The fanpage
is used by younger
farmers and
farmersʻ childern.

7. Pictures: www.infonet-biovision.org
Infonet-Biovision
was launched in
2007. 17ʻ000
monthly visitors
from 49 African
countries. Offline
version on CD.

8. Picture: http://one.laptop.org
Biovisionʻs exten-
sion workers are
equipped with the
OLPC. Used for 3
years and might
not be the best
option anymore.

9. iTOF and Infor-
mation Officers are
Pictures: Biovision
computer-literate
extension workers.
30 people, estab-
lished in 2009.
Regular trainings.

10. Huawei Ideos runs
on Android and
costs only 80 USD.
We are working on
an Android app and
developed a beta
version so far.
Pictures: http://cellphoneforums.net
Ask TOF is an SMS-
based Q&A service
which the TOF
editors provide
since 2010. They
get around 80 SMS
per week.

11. We do Scrum with
review cycles
because most
challenges are
related to content
and usability, not
technology.
Pictures: Biovision

12. Biovisionʻs expertise with mobile and web
technologies
• Quality standards for the content
• Experiences with different media and devices
• Technology embedded in extension work
Does Africa need trade rather than aid?
Research on „Silicon Savannah“
• Preconditions: Skills, policies and infrastructure?
• Business Process Outsourcing (BPO): What and how?
• Results: Growth, employment, brain gain?

13. Kenyan expertise
with mobile tech-
nologies (such as
M-Pesa) is in line
with global pros-
pects for internet Mobile
Source: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1278413
usage.
Desktop
Graph: http://www.namics.com
2013

14. Pictures: http://tekedia.com
MEDKenya were
the winners of
Pivot25, a mobile
apps developer
conference held in
June 2011 in
Nairobi.

15. Picture: http://kimoquaintance.com
A good place to
study „Silicon
Savannah“ is
Nairobiʻs iHub
which was started
by the team behind
Ushahidi.

16. Konza Technology
City is a govern-
ment project and
proposed as a key
driver for Kenyaʻs
Vision 2030.
Pictures: http://www.konzacity.co.ke

17. References
Bidwell, Nicola J. (2009): „Anchoring Design in Rural Customs of Doing and
Saying“, in: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 5726. 686-699.
Grameen Foundation (2010): Community Knowledge Worker Pilot Report.
Online: http://tinyurl.com/42y5qra
Grosskurth, Jasper (2010): Futures of Technology in Africa. Online: http://
tinyurl.com/349jo26
Hess, Christoph / Amudavi, David M. (2011): „Challenges and opportunities
for Infonet-Biovision on mobile phones“, in: Conference Proceedings of
the Workshop on Mobile and Web Technologies in Social and Economic
Development, June 4-5 2011, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Online: http://
tinyurl.com/3zu2k2x
IAASTD (2009): Agriculture at a Crossroads – International Assessment of
Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development.
Washington: Island Press.
Julisha – Kenya ICT Board (2011): Market ICT Indicator Survey Launch.
Online: http://tinyurl.com/3fltdwq
Talbot, David (2011): „Android Marches on East Africa“, in: MIT Technology
Review. Online: http://tinyurl.com/3j5szmc