1. MoMo Dar and the 2Seeds Network
ICT in Agriculture
February 12, 2013
Meeting Minutes: ICT in Agriculture
Panelists
• Eric Mutta – CEO & Founder of Problem Solved Ltd., Apps4Africa 2011 winner
• John Kagaruki – Chief Operating Officer of Nuru Infocomm
• Hezron Makundi – Assistant Lecture, University of Dar es Salaam, formerly with
COSTECH
• Benedict Tesha – Director of Product Development, Jamaa Technologies
• Ibrahim Rajab – Software Developer, PANBAnet
Demonstrations
• Sokoni LEO – Benedict Tesha – Director of Product Development, Jamaa Technologies
• Farming Instructor – Ernest Mwalusanya - Vodacom AppStar Mobile Application 2012
national level winner
• BR Solutions
• Nuru Infocomm – John Kagaruki – Chief Operating Officer of Nuru Infocomm
Panel Discussion: Prepared Questions
I. Question to Eric Mutta: Why is agriculture a promising space for ICT? Which parts of the supply chain
can be improved the most by ICT?
a. There are two things you look for to signal a big opportunity: large market size and low
penetration of ICT. Agriculture has both of those characteristics at the moment.
b. The agricultural supply chain starts with the import of farm inputs and ends at the export of
cash crops. ICT can bring a lot of efficiency to both of these end points, allowing you to buy
inputs more cheaply and efficiently, and helping with all of the communications, sales,
marketing, and tracking that is necessary in the final selling phase.
II. Benedict Tesha: What is the best way for ICT products for agriculture to make money? (Charge
farmers? Sell to the government? Sell to the mobile service providers?)
a. The software that I am currently focused on will provide up-to-date market prices. In
building it, we definitely face the question: how do you monetize?
b. The largest benefit will go to the farmers, but they often don’t have the ability to pay. This is
even more true if they already have to cover the expense of sending an SMS to use the
system.
c. Basically, you have two options: you must find outside funding from NGOs or the
Government, or you have to make it cheap enough that the farmers can buy it.
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2. MoMo Dar and the 2Seeds Network
ICT in Agriculture
February 12, 2013
III. Hezron Makundi: How do we enhance the access and usage of ICTs among the poor communities?
How can we use the technology that farmers already have to solve their problems?
a. In terms of how we use the technology that farmers already have, here are some statistics:
i. 85% of farmers have access to radio
ii. 40-50% have access to mobile phones
1. A Tigo analysis concluded 42%
iii. 27% have access to TV
iv. 3% have access to a computer
b. As you can see from these numbers, the web is the wrong target
c. Very few people have smart phones, so products must be compatible with 2G/feature
phones.
d. What do the rural poor use ICT for?
i. Farming best practices
ii. Market prices
iii. Extension services
iv. Weather reports
v. Sourcing and footprinting for organic etc. branding
vi. Linking customers to suppliers
vii. Financing
1. Mobile payments
2. Insurance
viii. Managing scarce resources
ix. Entertainment. This is important to remember – farming applications that are also
fun to use may have an easier time finding users.
e. To answer the second part of the question, if ICT can find a way to have a real impact on
poor peoples lives it will reach them, and it will have positive spillover effects even on those
it does not reach directly.
f. Access and usage are not the same: for example, some farmers ask for a phone with a
calculator not knowing that their phone already has a calculator.
g. Affordability of voucher and airtime are another barrier
h. Who’s role is it to finance businesses targeting the farmers?
i. The government?
ii. Big mobile company’s corporate social responsibility departments?
iii. NGOs?
iv. The programmers themselves, out of their own pockets?
i. The 18% VAT and 12% tax to import some technologies also makes things difficult.
j. Applications must be understandable and use the right language for the user.
k. Availability of the content that we want to publicize is another challenge.
IV. John Kagaruki: What challenges do you face working in an area where ICT has traditionally not been
used very much? Also, please tell us about the experience of working in a public-private partnership.
a. Most of us here are conversant in bringing ICT into existing work flows.
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3. MoMo Dar and the 2Seeds Network
ICT in Agriculture
February 12, 2013
b. However, it can be challenging:
i. ICT can threaten people’s jobs (by doing what they currently do with technology),
which will make them resistant to it.
ii. Technology literacy can also be a problem. For example, sometimes the government
workers that we are training to use smart phones don’t know how to use a touch
screen.
iii. Technology can uncover corruption as well, which can make some people resistant
to implementation.
c. As for Public Private Partnerships, one word comes to mind when working with
government, “bureaucracy.”
i. However, we can’t complain: big organizations need to have processes, and we
elected them in the first place. I don’t think we would do anything differently in
their position.
ii. Processes are only bad if they allow you to avoid responsibilities.
iii. It took us two years to get a proposal through the Ministry of Agriculture and
Trade. You must be patient, and sometimes you have to fund work yourself rather
than wait for government funding to speed things up.
V. Ibrahim Rajab: What are the benefits of PambaNET as an ICT tool to the Cotton Sector?
a. PambaNET is a service for contract farming between cotton farmers and cotton ginners
b. Benefits:
i. It allows you to capture all of the information from the value chain
ii. Farmers benefit from getting market information and more access to loans
iii. Ginners get a better estimate of the upcoming harvest’s size and increased
productivity out of the farmers for them. Having a record of the data is also useful
to the ginners for planning and submitting information to regulators.
Panel Discussion: Audience Questions
VI. Question from Victor Koliza from Sokoine University: All of you have focused on crop production so far.
How can ICT improve horticulture, forestry, and aquaculture? Also, farming is a patient profession.
How can ICT help improve patience?
Answer, Eric Mutta: You’ve highlighted a major challenge for us: most of us are not farmers. We need
someone from Sokoine University of Agriculture to be working with us to understand the farmers’
needs better. Also, we need to change the image we have of one another. Agriculturists don’t see ICT
as a part of their world, and ICT specialists are not excited enough about agriculture. It is a problem
of ignorance – there is a lot of opportunity here.
In terms of agriculture as a patient process, patience is basically risk. A lot of other industries
– banking, insurance, etc. – have developed models to measure and limit risk. We need to look into
these models. Dealing with risk requires being patient but also being strategic.
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4. MoMo Dar and the 2Seeds Network
ICT in Agriculture
February 12, 2013
VII. Question from Sarah Anderson, Country Director for mHealth: What is COSTECH doing in agriculture and
in general to document the use cases? How are you helping these sectors succeed? Can you help with
financing? Can you get us lower rates on mobile service?
Answer (from the audience), Omar Bakari, COSTECH: First I will answer the question: “what does
COSTECH do?” One big thing is that we have an ongoing partnership with Finland called
TANZICT. This partnership has three main goals: 1. Education for Tanzanian programmers 2.
Bringing more and better technology use to the government 3. Creating an innovation program that
helps developers innovate and build businesses. One good example of a product that has come out
of this is Uza Mazao. It was invented by a Tanzanian professor, now living in the US, with support
from TANZICT.
Our thesis is that the infrastructure is already here, and that we need to stimulate the inflow
of ideas. The fact that we can’t help you access finance doesn’t mean that we can’t help you and
support you. We aim to stimulate the links between developers and customers, in this case, farmers.
We are establishing an agribusiness incubator at Sokoine University, for example.
There is a lot of value to be provided by ICT throughout the agricultural value chain For
example, one group posed the idea of recording soil moisture in different locations through mobile.
Bring your innovative ideas to TANZICT; we want to help you.
Answer, Hezron Makundi: I have the same concern about the expense of these businesses. SMS is
expensive, and there isn’t another clear way to reach the farmers. One thing to note is that we can
run a separate server that is cheaper than the major mobile service providers. An example to look
into is the Swedish company Spyder. It is like What’sApp for non-smart phones.
Answer, John Kagaruki: Generally, just by Googling, you can find cheaper options than the major SMS
service providers. They get most of “the cake,” which is understandable considering the difficulty of
constructing cell towers and procuring electricity.
Sarah is right. We need to get together and discuss the best way to do this. For example,
there is a Croatian service provider that works in Tanzania that doesn’t comply with TCRA. With
creativity and Uncle Google on your side, there are many ways to skin a cat. More generally, we need
to get off of our individual islands and work together to build great products. The poor will pay for
services if they provide real value. For example, in our pilot program we found farmers would pay up
to TZS 10,000 for our service, much more than we ever thought. We should link up and not be
afraid to share ideas; if you’re smart enough there is enough and you collaborate there is enough to
go around.
Answer, Omar Bakari: FAO met with us next week to discuss establishing a mobile platform. Chris
from mHealth attended/coordinated. Come and work with COSTECH. We need strong
collaboration between these efforts or we will confuse the market.
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5. MoMo Dar and the 2Seeds Network
ICT in Agriculture
February 12, 2013
VIII. Question, Jumanne, Blogger: We have already seen several products that worked, but didn’t work out in
practicality: Tigo Kilimo, mFarmer Uganda. How do we make this sort of software sustainable and
able to get to scale?
Answer, Ibrahim Rajab: For us, we are sustainable because we have funding from the Tanzania Gatsby
Trust. We have now registered half a million farmers, while most of our competitors don’t even have
200,000.
Jumanne: Yes, but what is your advice to the guys not being funded by an NGO?
Ibrahim Rajab: It is very hard. We haven’t found a sustainable business model yet. We need to come
together around COSTECH to solve this challenge.
Answer, Eric Mutta: Sustainability is a big problem, but we are problem solvers and it is our job to take
on challenges like this. In terms of what the challenge is, is it: “famers don’t have money?” No,
mobile operators consistently make big revenues outside of the urban centers, implying that farmers
are willing to spend money on phone credits. The business model is really pretty simple: create
something valuable enough that people will pay for it. We are wrong to assume that farmers cannot
spend.
IX. Question: I believe that we need to look into public private partnerships, because the challenges are
big. Women in the villages often don’t like to use text services because they cannot read and write.
People over 40 simply don’t like ICT. I’d like to hear more about a very easy to use program with
government backing.
Answer, John Kagaruki: She’s absolutely right. I started out with a public-private partnership, thinking
that we were about to save the world. Then we went out into the field, and we had to re-calibrate to
allow for voice, to use icons, etc.
However, one hopeful thing to consider about your question is that you don’t need to access
everyone. If we hit the most tech-savvy individuals in the community they will share the information
with other people, and eventually others will want the technology too. For example, the Grameen
Bank has done a good job of this with an app for women, and a program in which extension officers
were given information through smart phones led people in the village to buy smart phones.
Furthermore, all of the hardware costs are coming down. We need to think past the “find donors and
do trainings” model and be creative about reaching farmers.
X. Comment, Chi, Program Manager, African Leadership Academy’s Azisha Prize: There is a very impressive
developer community here with a lot of entrepreneurial spirit. However, it seems very tight-knit.
What outreach to rural entrepreneurs is being done?
XI. Comment, Pasco, (“the second funniest programmer… I don’t know who the first is”): Hezron, contrary to what
you said, I think there is a hope for web-based apps. I work for a small company that sells solar
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6. MoMo Dar and the 2Seeds Network
ICT in Agriculture
February 12, 2013
energy to poor, rural communities. With solutions like this that can bring electricity to more of the
country, there is still hope for access to computers. Lastly, I don’t like when people complain about
lack of support from the government. We need to make systems that are so good that they make it
on their own.
Product Demonstrations
Benedict Tesha – Sokoni Leo – system for recording daily wholesale and retail prices in the Kariakoo Market
and making up-to-date prices and historical data available on the Kariakoo Market Corporation’s website
Ernest Mwalusanya – Farming Instructor – App that uses text, voice, and animations to bring farming tips and
weather to farmers, in Swahili and English, even if they cannot read
Richard – BR Solutions – broad service for farmers offering tips, market prices, contacts, and other valuable
information
John Kagaruki – Nuru Infocomm – a service that collects market prices from markets around Tanzania and
makes them available by smart phone
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