Power of ICT in transformation of agriculture

Appropriate and timely use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can drive the global push to address a range of food insecurities caused by preventable diseases.

In this special report that examines the power, potential and value of ICT in agricultural transformation in Tanzania reviewing a case study of cassava and maize diseases and pests…

The value of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to agricultural transformation in Tanzania best became evident when severe attacks by several biotic and abiotic dynamics including cassava and corn mosaic disease (CMD) and cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) hit the lake zone.

Majority of Tanzania’s population lives in rural communities relying heavily on natural resources. Two thirds of Tanzanians depends on agriculture, 95 percent of which is rain-fed.

Agriculture is the chief economic activity in the country, currently employing young graduates to develop their small and medium scale farms.
Farmers’ lack of technological knowhow to shift their agriculture from hand hoe to modern farming methods like irrigation and use of tractors seriously undermines food security.

Charles Masanja, a farmer in Misugwi, Mwanza (Lake region) laments that little knowledge on modern agricultural methods, modern communication technologies like use of mobile phones and the internet affects farmers initiative to advance agriculture.

As this farmer has observed, ICT is a powerful mechanism and can play a key role in the development process not only to famers but also in other sectors.
ICT cuts across various technologies of computers, multimedia, telecommunication systems ‘fixed lines, wireless, satellite’ and mobile infrastructures/communication networks.

Constituting the main threat to cassava and maize productivity, both staple foods in the country, the outbreak of CMD and CBSD severely undermined the country’s food security.

The Lake Zone, Geita, Shinyanga, Simiyu, Mara, Mwanza and Kagera regions, were not the only ones affected, central regions of Dodoma, Tabora and Singida also suffered massive yield losses of maize, sunflowers and rice.

Valued for its ability to flourish in harsh conditions, cassavas produce their carbohydrate-rich roots in the poorest of soils and are also drought resistant.
Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Adam Malima notes that under normal circumstances, cassava yields are as high as 25 to 40 tonnes per hectare but owing to the outbreak, yields are sometimes less than 5 tonnes per hectare.

Researchers say CMD alone accounts to the loss of an estimated 45percent of cassava produce in East and Central Africa, worse is CBSD which cleans out 100percent of all yields.

In 2005 for example, CMD alone caused crop losses of 4 million metric tons per year in Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. Conversely, CBSD caused estimated crop losses in Tanzania of between $35 and 70 million per year calculated at a price of $100 per metric tons of fresh cassava.

Additionally, loss estimates upon minimum average prices of high quality cassava flour in Dar es Salaam would make this at least $70-140 million at wholesale, and $175-350 million at retail.

With that level of threat, ICT is the key element in the fight against the diseases and saving billions of lives from malnutrition and outright starvation.

Dr Joseph Nduguru, Officer in Charge at the Mikocheni Agriculture Research Institute explains that for sustainable management of cassava virus diseases, “we need to build the capacity of the national research institutions in terms of human and infrastructure.”

“The ability of research institutions to avail their findings to farmers in time, automatically helps in the reduction of yield loss that results from improper use of pests, detection of new diseases and proper harvest/storage of agro produces...” says Dr. Nduguru who goes to note that timely awareness allows for quick response preventing the devastating effects.

As matters stand, farmers in some areas in the country are becoming the victim of CBSD and CMD for replanting cassava cuttings from infected cassava plants.
Take the case of sparking conflict to famers in Mara’s Bunda district, they unknowingly planted infected cassava cuttings from Mwanza villages of Mayolwa in Misungwi district and Nyasenga and Sima in Sengerema.

“Before learning of the disease and its symptoms, we used to point fingers to one another…most of us concluded that it was witchcraft…” concedes Maginge Chacha a cassava farmer from Nyalero.

Consider a texting system that would send such information to the farmers’ phones, they would be informed and warned: then the profound effect of ICT becomes evident. Especially in a country where superstition has seen old women and albinos killed in the hundreds.

ICT in remote and rural areas is a life saver, with available community radio stations lacking regular programs on new outbreaks and other findings, a means to transmit information fast from research institutes directly to the farmers or their extension officers is clearly not a privilege but a necessity, as are phones and access to internet.

During the last decade, these plant pathogens have increased in number, distribution and in some places, they have forced farmers to abandon their fields.
“We need ‘a big push’ from the government to inform the community most of whom depend on agriculture to survive,” says Mwanahamisi Salim a spokesperson for Oxfam Tanzania.

“Speaking of Agriculture, you’re speaking of over 60percent of the entire country’s population…” she explains “…the population needs to be well informed on weather and climate changes, research findings, diseases, available pesticides, markets for their agro produces…”

To mass disperse this information the spokesperson underscores the value of ICT.
She points out that her organization has been training small scale farmers and equipping them with mobile phones through which they can access relevant information on not only outbreaks but also agro-inputs, availability of market and modern agriculture practices.

This is the other frontier that ICT drives the farmers to, market and prices.
Crop auctioneers are notoriously minting millions from farmers but with advent of ICT farmers are empowered with bargaining power since they are aware of market conditions and related prices.

Despite these efforts which have seen an increase in the number of mobile phones to farmers, most of remote parts of the country still suffer from the lack of reliable network signals and frequency coverage.

Tanzania Meteorological Agency Director of Forecasting Services Dr. Hamza Kabelwa confirmed that most of their forecasting findings do not reach farmers especially remote areas.

To bridge the gap, he said the agency in collaboration with other state and non-state organs has set up 23community radio stations across the country to increase farmers’ awareness.

“We have issued a full fledged computer access initiative to Sengerema district council and mobile phones …our goal is to enable farmers get information as fast as possible,” he said.

Further, the agency is setting up its own network server to allow farmers’ representatives to receive text messages directly from the agency.
At the moment, only two Telecom companies Vodacom Tanzania and Tigo Tanzania have projects geared at increasing farmers’ access to information and news.

But still, these services are charged and technical requiring farmers (mostly illiterate) to subscribe to daily messages from the phone companies.

So the Executive Director of the Agricultural Council of Tanzania, Janet Bitegeko says the council is working to strengthen information communication to farmers via easier and free methods.

While there is huge ground to be made, Tanzania has made commendable steps towards development of ICT in the country.

With its advent only a decade ago Tanzania has since then established and developed a fully fledged national ICT Policy overseen by Dar es Salaam Teknoham Business Incubator (DTBi).

According to the organisation’s Chief Executive Officer and Senior Government Advisor (ICT, Innovation & Tech Entrepreneurship) Eng. George Mulamula, the move has created an enabling environment for entrepreneurship and encouraged innovative solutions to meet the needs of most all economic sectors including education, health and now agriculture.

“We provide them with Business Development Services, from technical knowledge to business management skills, and at times linking them to financial resources to allow them to commercialize their products,” he explained.

“In the Agricultural sector, we are linking farmers to the market by providing a price data base and we are setting up a website that disseminates information to both farmers and buyers…” he said.

Working with entrepreneurs, DTBi has also set up a commodity exchange portal that allows access to Tanzanian produce abroad increasing the rate of exports.
Following the Smart-partnership event recently held in Tanzania, DTBi is working on integrating agricultural communities with the blossoming Extractive Industry in a profitable and sustainable manner rather than depending on Corporate Social Responsibility donations.

It will include use of new technologies like wireless sensor systems to monitor soil moisture and assist in irrigation mechanisms.

Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has asserted its will to secure reliable network access across the country, hovering to issue a private number to be used by famers to receive necessary information.

Media in the country is also called to step up the dispersion of information to farmers. With the switch from analogue to digital transmissions the efforts are well underway.

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Here are ways to make agriculture Africa's best economic alternative

Professor Calestous Juma, Faculty Chair of Harvard Kennedy School and the author of the ‘New Harvest: Agricultural innovation in Africa’ gave an inspiring lecture on Agricultural innovation in Africa at The Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) in Dar es Salaam. The proceeding are the interview talks;
QUESTION: What is the missing link between available agriculture opportunities and development in Africa and Tanzania in particular?

ANSWER: The main issue is that so far agriculture has been viewed as a sector rather that a foundation for overall economic transformation. Initial investments in agriculture such as infrastructure services help to lay the basis transitioning from labour-intensive activities to agro-industries. In this regard, agricultural innovation (not just farming) is a critical starting point for industrial development. This, however, does not mean that industrial development cannot occur without starting with agriculture. But strategically, it makes sense to start with the sector that employs most people and the diversify to other industries.

Q: I understand that you are the author of The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa, how would you describe the current state of agricultural innovation in Africa.

A: The state of agricultural innovation in Africa is in its nascent stage. The good news is rise of interest among African presidents in transformation agriculture. Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete has emerged as an internationally-recognized champion of agricultural innovation. Because of his leadership leading international investors have committed nearly US$3.5 billion for investment in African agriculture. This ‘Grow Africa’ initiative was inspired through the World Economic Forum and enjoys the support of the African Union. This is the kind of leadership and support that Africa has previously lacked.

Q: What are the available opportunities for agricultural innovation in Africa and in a country like Tanzania in particular?

A: The mainly opportunity for agricultural innovation is the fact that nearly 60 percent of the arable land available in the world is in Africa. This gives Africa the opportunity to leverage international investment as well as technological innovation in the agricultural sector. The challenge for Tanzania and Africa is defining agriculture not just as farming, but as a dynamic, entrepreneurial and knowledge-intensive activity.

Q: What are the key challenges for agricultural innovation in Africa and in a country like Tanzania in particular?

A: The main challenge is the low level of investment in critical rural infrastructure such as energy, transportation, irrigation and telecoms. Investments in these sectors will make it easier to improve technological innovation in the sector. Low-cost roads—which can be built with the help of the military—could significantly improve agricultural productivity by making it easier to transport input and produce and as a result create agricultural markets.

Q: Looking at agricultural technologies, what are the frontiers of agricultural technologies and what are their roles in addressing food security in Africa and Tanzania in particular?

A: Countries such as Mexico, India, China and the Philippines used very limited technologies to implement their agricultural revolutions. As a late-comer, Tanzania has access to a wider range of technologies that it can leverage to address food security and agricultural innovation in generation. These include advances in information and communications technologies, geospatial science and technology and biotechnology. In addition, there have been many advances in ecological management and natural resource conservation that should be part of the sustainable intensification of agriculture.

Q: Tanzania is blessed to have fertile land for agriculture, yet it is expected to face shortage of food in this agricultural season. According to the government, a total of 51 district councils from 15 regions will face acute shortage of food this season. What are your views on this?

A: This situation is a good example of the urgency of investing in rural infrastructure, especially starting with low-cost roads. This can be done with the help of the military and other public institutions that have access to machinery. The next step would be mobilize the expertise of line ministries responsible for agriculture, science and technology, energy, transportation and others to offer technical support to farmers.

Q: For a long time now, Africa and Tanzania in particular have banked on foreign investments in agriculture as the solution for food security. In most cases, locals especially small scale farmers have been “forgotten” at the expense of these foreign investors. What are your views on this?

A: One way to support small scale farmers is to view them as entrepreneurs, not just as producers. Farmers can also become more innovative if they can organize themselves through rural enterprises. They should be accorded the same types of credit services given to urban entrepreneurs.

One success approach for supporting rural entrepreneurship is Brazil’s Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) which provides technical support and credit to farmers. Ethiopia has created the Agricultural Transformation Agency which has parallels with Brazil’s EMBRAPA. Tanzania might want to consider a variant of this model that suits its circumstances.

Q: Tanzania is currently experiencing crop diseases than any other time in the history of the nation such as maize lethal necrotic, cassava mosaic disease (CMD) and cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) which constitute the main threat to staple food crops. What should be done to eliminate such diseases?

A:Tanzania and other African countries will continue to experience increases in crop diseases partly because of climate change. In addition, climate change is going to alter ecological conditions requiring more intensive breeding programmess.

Advances in biotechnology offer additional tools for being able to respond to such challenges in a timely manner. Countries that have made a head-start in using such techniques in crops such as cotton will have the ability to apply the same techniques to addressing emerging agricultural challenges. Those that are too slow to adopt such techniques are likely to be condemned to food imports from other countries.

It should be stressed that Tanzania needs to have access to all possible technologies including organic farming tools. It should be able to make choices based on relevance and need. Tanzania should be pragmatic when it comes to new technologies and should avoid making decisions based on political rhetoric and ecological ideologies that are not supported by evidence.

Q: Given the vast resources it has, is Africa prepared to join tiger countries or even become an economic super power?

A: All the so-called Tigers made great strides not because of natural resources but because they heavily invested in human resources. More specifically, they invested heavily in training their people in science, technology, engineering and math.

Africa is not doing enough of this and universities remain heavily focused on the social sciences. Without such investments African countries will remain locked in raw material exports. Today’s so-called “Africa Rising” phenomenon is largely driven by raw material exports and does not represent a significant change in the industrial structure of African economies.

Q: Finally, what is your call to the African governments and Tanzania in particular on advancing agricultural technology?

A: The main challenge today is to make agriculture an entrepreneurial, technology-intensive and dynamic sector. Doing so will require investing infrastructure and bringing higher technical training to farmers.

Line ministries should be empowered to create higher technical training programmes that are directly linked to farmers so they that can help create agro-industries.

The challenge for higher education is not to produce certificates but to add value to the economy. If existing universities cannot do the job, new ones under line ministries need to be created to champion this important goal. This has been done in many countries such as China, Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan and others. It is not a choice for Africa anymore; it is a necessity and Tanzania is best-placed to become a pioneer in Africa’s agricultural transformation through science, technology and innovation. 

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Overcoming the twin challenges of youth unemployment and food insecurity: what role for agricultural employment?

In the contemporary context of profound and significant global change, youth unemployment levels have hit historic highs (ILO, 2012a,b,c; OECD, 2012)[1], and despite improved undernourishment estimates in the two decades to 2007, one in eight people suffered chronic undernourishment in 2010-2012 - one in four in sub-Saharan Africa - according to the recent United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) State of food insecurity and hunger in the world  report (2012).

Add to the twin challenges of youth unemployment and hunger and food insecurity, an apparent ageing of the farm population – the average age of farmers is now in the range of late-50s to early 60s across the globe from The United States to Europe, to Africa, to Australia.On the surface the answer seems simple enough: encourage young people to farm and we solve three ‘problems’ in one fell swoop.

Agriculture will provide under- and un-employed young people with employment and income, this in turn will provide the food we need via increased production, and ensures farming is passed from one generation to the next. This message adds yet another  framing of young people as the saviours of undernutrition to the many other framings and narratives that place young people in the role of saviours (of the agriculture sector) or ‘sinners’ (young people are too lazy for agriculture, idle, unemployed)[2].

It seems obvious – if more than a little instrumentalist in approach. Of course the answer is not as simple as that.

Strong messages emerging from primary research with young people in rural areas under the Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility project – a four-year study across ten developing countries - and from the Future Agricultures Consortium  youth theme, focusing on young people and agricultural policy processes in sub-Saharan Africa, shed light on young people’s attitudes towards agriculture and the likelihood of being able to address food security concerns via engagement of young people with the sector.  Some of these attitudes include:

• Most young people have no interest in agriculture, not within their own visions for their future. This is often echoed by their parents. By agriculture, people invariably think of farming: back-breaking work, low input, 365 days a year for little or low return. Those who do see a future for themselves in farming believe it needs to be ‘smarter’, more productive and more reliable. More modern?

• Agriculture is not considered to be delivering the types of lifestyles and status that young people desire and expect. These are important dimensions of the attractiveness, or otherwise, of agriculture (invariably farming) as an occupation. Agriculture is not considered able to deliver via incomes and working conditions the kinds of lifestyles young people need, expect and desire in the 21^st century, lifestyles that are ever more visible thanks to revolutionary advances in communications technology that is accessible to (almost) all, even people living in the most remote rural areas. In this respect, agriculture is regarded as a poor person’s activity, going beyond living standards to people’s sense of pride and self-respect. These are important dimensions of wellbeing[3] and take us beyond narrow, one-dimensional conceptions of what it means to be poor, marginalised and disadvantaged. If agriculture is not able to deliver either the desired living standards or the prospects for upward mobility, then the likelihood of attracting young people into or retaining them in the sector is low.

• Education is a double-edged sword. Higher education levels overall mean that young people are being educated kinds of agriculture on offer. With higher levels of education they seek jobs with higher skill levels than those of the smallholder farming activities that most face. But higher unemployment levels, especially among the youth, suggest that work and education are failing as key routes by which people move out of poverty, and as crucial mechanisms linking economic growth to poverty reduction. More children than ever go to school, but what they learn appears to be far removed from the skills needed in the 21^st century (UNESCO, 2012; World Bank, 2012). This is as much true for agriculture sector skills as any other.

• Agriculture is often seen as a last resort, something you do if you fail: in school,  as migrants in town or abroad, in non-farm businesses. Or may not even be an option at all – pressure on resources, especially land scarcity, pose serious barriers to entry for young people. This is highlighted sharply by Getnet Tadele and Asrat Ayalew Gella’s work in Ethiopia, and is not peculiar to this setting. This is a recurring theme across the ten countries in the Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility project. An apparent sense of insecurity around farming, related to unpredictable climate variability, volatile food prices, rising costs, further acts as a deterrent.

These emergent findings suggest policymakers need to think beyond the conception of (young) people as units of labour to be placed in jobs. To engage and empower young people in agriculture, the sector needs to be able to address young people’s aspirations and their expectations, and offer potential for social mobility. Using the language of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and FAO, rural employment needs to be ‘decent work’[4] – but as the importance to people of self-respect and status highlights, it needs also to address broader conceptions of human wellbeing. Farming needs a change of image to get over entrenched, though not unfounded, beliefs that it involves dirty, laborious work at low skill levels for low returns. And we need to reassess what we mean by ‘farmer’ in the 21^st century. The broader agri-food framing called for by the Future Agricultures Consortium can go some way towards this, potentially recasting agriculture as an aspirational career choice by highlighting opportunities throughout the industry.

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Can Agriculture solve Youth Unemployment?

Youth unemployment is one of the most acute problems affecting developing countries. A lack of basic education ranks high among the reasons for this problem. However, youth unemployment is compounded by the fact that a large portion of the population in developing countries tends to be youth. The formal economy is unable to create enough employment opportunities to absorb this constant supply of labor-seeking youth. Whatever the solution[s] to this multilevel problem, a great deal of coordination and deft thinking will be required to attract gadget loving and efficiency prone young people into the agricultural sector.

Amongst the most trendy and perhaps viable ‘solutions’ being touted today is greater youth involvement in rural development through agriculture. However, youth participation in the agriculture sector in many developing countries is very low, largely because the sector is highly unattractive—due to risks, costs, inefficiency and its labor intensive nature. As such, motivating the youth to view agriculture as a career opportunity will require a multi-level intervention. In the first instance, those within the school system must be targeted and in the second instance, those outside of the school system must be lured and sensitized. How should this be done? Simple! Teach them by delivering age appropriate information inside and outside of the formal school system and ‘dangle the carrot’.

The absence of agriculture from the curriculum, particularly at the compulsory levels of education, should be addressed. The current mode of education in most developing countries is geared towards educating white collar workers, which doesn’t reflect the economic and social context for which they are being trained. This is not to suggest that developing countries shouldn’t plan for economic expansion, however those plans should not negate the existing needs of the economy. One response is to encourage partnerships with the education sector to integrate agriculture into the primary and secondary school curriculum. In many instances, agriculture is incorporated as an optional component that is taught with minimal enthusiasm; its broad-based and compulsory inclusion with the appropriate resources will help to motivate youth towards having a more favorable view of employment opportunities in the agricultural sector.

Similarly, those youth outside of the formal education system must also be targeted and wooed towards agriculture. Young people are often turned off by the many plagues affecting the agricultural sector, such as praedial larceny-- an organized criminal activity geared at perpetuating the theft of agricultural stocks-- and information asymmetries which cause ineffective marketing. There ought to be the creation of ongoing initiatives to support youth in agricultural enterprises and opportunities to showcase their successes in order to attract more young people. There should also be the incorporation of information communication technologies (ICTs) such as the Internet, mobile phones, computers, and Global Positioning Systems, associated or not with traditional communication technologies such as radio, television, written press, and video.

With this in mind, the emerging Youth in Agriculture Strategy must demonstrate a clear understanding of the youth’s affinity for technology, efficiency and a strong voice in the decision-making processes. The strategy must also emphasize the need for the incorporation of agriculture in the regular curriculum.

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Enhancing Smallholder Farmers’ Market Competitiveness in Tanzania:

Tanzanian agriculture is dominated by small-scale subsistence farming. Like the entire economy, agriculture is in a transition from being a command to a market-based production system. The transition process started in the mid-1980s as part of the economic adjustment and structural reform programs and policies supported by Tanzania’s development partners. Despite some impressive macroeconomic achievements resulting from the reform programs, agricultural growth and rural poverty reduction continue to present daunting challenges. Few smallholder producers understand how markets work, and even if they do, they do not have the information they need to participate effectively.
In response to these development issues, the government of Tanzania, in consultation with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), identified the suboptimal structure and functioning of the agricultural marketing system as a key area for attention. Liberalization policy has removed many of the old certainties but has not yet provided adequate basis for an efficiently functioning alternative. To meet this need, an investment program entitled Agricultural Marketing Systems Development was proposed to remove constraints to effective operation of the agricultural marketing system and to help smallholder producers acquire the tools needed to participate on favorable terms in the open market. The program consists of four components: producer empowerment and market linkages, financial market support services, rural marketing infrastructure, and agricultural marketing policy development.
The producer empowerment and market linkages component was designed to transform agriculture from a subsistence activity to a profitable enterprise in the mindset of smallholder producers by building the management and marketing capacity of these producers and small-scale traders and processors. About 50 percent of all participating producer groups are now well organized, have adopted collective marketing, and can understand which enterprises are profitable. This shift will lead to the commercialization of agriculture. The financial market support services component was created to improve access to financial services for smallholders and small-scale rural traders and processors, and this goal has been achieved among 20 percent of targeted beneficiaries. The rehabilitation of marketing infrastructure, including markets, warehouses, and rural roads, has been 43 percent achieved.
The agricultural marketing policy component was designed to create a conducive policy environment for smallholder farmers to gain access to both domestic and export markets in an organized and sustainable manner, with the help of both financial market support services and infrastructure. Issues that currently impede smallholder farmers’ access to markets include a weak legal, regulatory, and institutional framework; poor-quality agricultural products; inadequate entrepreneurial skills; poor facilities for processing agricultural products; poorquality agricultural marketing infrastructure; and poor access to market information and intelligence.
The program has come up with some policy options designed to facilitate the strategic marketing of agricultural products and ensure fair returns to all stakeholders based on a competitive, efficient, and equitable marketing system. Policy options include harmonizing legislation and regulations to enhance fair and free marketing of food and cash crops; establishing an institutional framework that will improve performance of the agricultural marketing systems based on needs assessments; creating awareness of quality, standards, grades, and governing regulations among agricultural marketing stakeholders; supporting training in entrepreneurial and marketing skills for agricultural marketing stakeholders; promoting primary agroprocessing and value-addition chains; strengthening links between local and foreign firms; mobilizing adequate resources for investment in agriculture and development of agricultural marketing infrastructure in rural areas; and strengthening the Agricultural Marketing Information Services (AMISs) to enhance timely, demand-driven collection, analysis, storage, and dissemination of marketing information.
Through the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty, Tanzania aims to reduce poverty by transforming the agriculture-based economy into a market-led, competitive, and semiindustrial economy where smallholder farmers dominate the sector. This approach is strongly supported by Tanzania’s development partners, including IFAD and the World Bank. In view of the challenges facing smallholder farmers’ agricultural marketing systems, your assignment is to assess the adequacy of the developed policy options in assisting the government of Tanzania to achieve its aim and identify the key policy options for success.

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