The document discusses potential collaboration between ILRI and Totogeo, focusing on the integration of livestock content and exploring innovative ICT4AG projects like livestock insurance, mobile diagnostics, and data systems for sustainable livestock genetics. It outlines challenges and opportunities in enhancing livestock insurance programs and improving disease control through smartphone technology. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of matching research priorities with farmer needs and increasing access to crucial agricultural data.

1. ILRI and TotoGEO
Some ‘big ideas’ and areas for potential collaboration
Iddo Dror
Head of Capacity Development, ILRI
Meeting on Leveraging TOTOGEO and Partnerships
INSEAD, Singapore, 16 February 2015

2. Overview – we came here today to discuss:
How can ILRI and TotoGEO work closer together?
What are some related ‘big ideas’ we may wish to explore?

3. ILRI and TotoGeo
• What are the
challenges of getting
ILRI livestock content
into totoGEO?
• Can we make ILRI a
TotoGEO champion for
livestock?
• What can we do about
it?

4. Some related ‘big ideas’ – what could the next
ICT4Ag breakthrough project?
• Livestock Insurance?
• Mobile phone-based diagnostics?
• Mobile Data Systems for
Sustainable Livestock Genetic?
• Leveraging Technology to Match
Research Priorities to Farmer
Needs?

5. Livestock Insurance Contract Design Tools and
Related Training Packages
• Index Based Livestock Insurance
(IBLI) - operating since 2010,
about to be scaled up
considerably with a World Bank
/ Government of Kenya
program.
• A number of opportunities to
enhance the program:
– Convert an existing tool to web-
based platform with automation
functionalities
– Design of mobile-apps
– Localization to local languages
– Etc.

6. Mobile phone-based diagnostics for better
Disease Control and increased Food Safety*
• Novel DNA based diagnostic
methods for livestock diseases
• Inexpensive (<US$ 0.5), self-
loading and disposable silicone
“cartridge” is envisaged to be
enabled by a smartphone and a
smartphone powered, data
collection and transmission over
phone/ wireless networks.
• Opportunities for collaboration
on contextualization, technical
training and scaling up adoption
* This project is led by University of Wisconsin / Prof. Douglas Weibel in collaboration with ILRI

7. Small Holder Dairy Data Systems for
Sustainable Genetic Selection Programs
• Genetics a major driver of livestock
productivity, and genetic
improvement is largely dependent
upon the availability of
performance data. In Africa,
production data is almost entirely
absent.
• New project to create mobile data
platforms to skip a generation of
data collection technology by
providing dairy farmers with highly
tailored information and
management systems

8. Leveraging Technology to Match Research
Priorities to Farmer Needs.
• Extension knowledge in developing countries is not digitized and
remains ephemeral.
• Farmers’ knowledge is rich but still largely inaccessible to donors,
policy makers and academics.
• Mandates of agricultural research institutes are often global and
research outputs remain often untargeted.
• Build an open API to enable a
better communication system
• Mobile apps & targeted
interventions for communities,
policymakers and other
stakeholders

9. The presentation has a Creative Commons licence. You are free to re-use or distribute this work, provided credit is given to ILRI.
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