Interview with Eric White, Managing Associate and Lead Economist, Integra Government Services International by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) at ICT4Ag 2013. The conference, organized by CTA and the Rwandan Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) was held at the Serena Hotel Conference Center in Kigali, November 4-8, 2013.  Read more

Eric White, Integra LLC’s Lead Economist and Managing Associate, will join a panel next Wednesday, May 15th at the World Bank Info Shop. At the event, entitled“Breaking the Rural – Urban Divide”, panelists will be discussing two books released by the World Bank Press; Structural Transformation and Rural Change Revisited and Financing Africa’s Cities. As a co-author of the former, Mr. White will take part in a discussion about the structural transformation process, from both a rural and urban perspective.

Read more …

According to a United Nations Environmental Programme –International Water Management Institute report, “An Ecosystems Approach to Water and Food Security”, ecosystem services should be incorporated into food security efforts, as should the proper incentives needed to involve local members of the community.  In part three of our Ecosystem Services series, we take a look at how ecosystems can be better managed and maintained, to play a vital role in nourishing communities around the world. 

As the global population approaches 8 billion people, it will become increasingly difficult to provide a steady supply of food, let alone at a price point the majority of people can afford. In this respect, ecosystems perform a vital function by producing food and providing access to water, thereby increasing food security for communities around the world. For example, it is estimated that a mangrove can yield an annual harvest per hectare of 220 lbs of fish, 44 lbs of shrimp, 33 lbs of crabmeat, 440 lbs of mollusk and 88 lbs of sea cucumber. With food prices predicted to rise an additional 30-50% over the next several decades, ecosystem-provisioning services will be heavily relied upon, particularly in areas of poverty.

In addition to the increased demand on food supply, climate change also has the potential to significantly impact an ecosystem’s ability to produce food, regulate water, and irrigate land (among other functions). Given the provisioning and regulating services ecosystems perform, it is crucial that agricultural areas in particular are managed and maintained to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change. For example, small-scale rainwater harvesting in Tanzania has improved agricultural production, and increased the water soil capacity, reducing vulnerability to dry spells. When correctly managed, ecosystems have the ability to resist drought and help prepare for water and food shortages that may occur throughout the year.

The Jordan Valley Permaculture Pilot Project, before and after pictures of when the project began, six months later, and three years later (2003(

Jordan Valley Permaculture Pilot Project: start date, 6 months later, three years later
Photo credit: ProAct (2008)

One example of a natural resource management approach to improving ecosystem services is the Jordan Valley Permaculture Project, implemented by the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. Established in 2008, the project aimed to increase food and water production in the Jordan Valley by rehabilitating the land, known for month-long droughts ranging up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. In order to improve the health of the ecosystem, a swale system, or land contouring system, was used to help the land trap water in the soil during the winter months to be used during summer droughts. Drought and salt resistant crops were also planted to better trap water in the soil. Using this system over 10 acres of land, the project was able to increase freshwater sources and overall food production. This can act as an important lesson in natural resource management, particularly for dry lands, which support one-third of the global population, up to 44 percent of the world’s cultivated systems, and approximately 50 percent of the world’s livestock.

Not only are ecosystems a vital source of food and water, but for poor and rural populations in particular, they are also a crucial source of income. Better-managed fisheries for example, can increase revenue by improving the fish supply. Water regulation is also very important, to enhance food production and provide water for livestock, fish farms, etc. Whether a community’s food supply is mainly a source of nourishment or a source of income, the livelihood of that population is greatly dependent on a given ecosystem’s ability to function properly. It is therefore very important that community members, farmers and fishermen, are also kept informed about natural resource management tools they can utilize.

As the world continues to rely on the provisioning and regulating services ecosystems provide, it will become increasingly important to ensure the health of ecosystems, and control for environmental degradation wherever possible. Environmental policy tools such as payment for ecosystem services, and economic valuation strategies can assist in this effort by making it easier to provide incentives for this purpose. In the forth blog of our Ecosystem Services series, we will look into how ICTs can help support such policies, involving a variety of players from corporate leaders to local farmers, in natural resource management.

Stay tuned next week for the final blog of our Ecosystem Services series, “ICT for Ecosystem Management and Environmental Policy”.

Photo Credit: The Economist

I participated in a very informative event this week in Washington DC where a researcher was sharing his experience on “Weather-Index based Crop Insurance for Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia”. As I listened to the discussion as an agricultural information specialist, my concern was what is the role of mobile technologies in this?

According to the researcher, Dr. Shukri Ahmed a Senior Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the concept of crop insurance has a long history from Asia with the leadership of India. However, due to the challenges associated with insurance in general and access to credit to smallholder farmers, the idea somehow waned. But according to Index Insurance Innovation Initiative (I4), there is overwhelming evidence that uninsured risk can drive people into poverty and destitution, especially those in low-wealth agricultural and pastoralist households. There is therefore a re-emergence of insurance for smallholder farmers across the globe.

The speaker gave a detailed background to the study in Ethiopia and the importance of partnership in the design and implementation of the study. The difference, however, with this new approach to crop insurance for smallholder farmers is the use of index (indices) to support the insurance service, and intervention against emergency situation. But at the same time the study is targeting farmers that are relatively better off and who are already engaged in the market but are not investing in insurance due to the anticipated risks. The outcome of the pilot study is expected to help protect the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, who are vulnerable to severe and catastrophic weather risks particularly drought, enhance their access to agricultural inputs, and enable the development of ex-ante market based risk management mechanism which can be scalable in Ethiopia.

Dr. Shukri Ahmed, Senior Economist at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Unbanked or Branchless Services

Adding another concept to an already very complex issue that tries to combine weather, insurance, credit/finance, and smallholder farming, should be carefully considered. But the key question is whether mobile technologies can play a catalytic role in this entire complex system?

Among the reasons for choosing a given area for the pilot study, include availability of Nyala Bank branches, the vulnerability of yields to drought, the availability of nearby weather stations, and the willingness of cooperatives in the area to purchase the new product. As the pilot study progresses, the possibility of scaling the project across the country is high. But what will be the implications for the absence of banks in the rural farming communities in a country that has an approximately one bank loan per 1000 adults? Can Mobile Banking help understand why smallholder farmers under-investment in agriculture?

A success story of mobile banking by  the Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) in Bangladesh was recently highlighted by the GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked. Interestingly, the story pointed out how DBBL learnt from Kenya’s famous mobile money program M-PESA. Kilimo Salama (KS) is an innovative index-based insurance product that insures farmers’ inputs (seeds, fertilizer, pesticides), and outputs (crop harvests), in the event of drought or excessive rainfall. It uses weather stations to collect data and implements SMS-based mobile technologies to administer and distribute the payouts. Mobile technologies will not only help with the financial transactions such as seen in Kilimo Salama’s case but also in support of the weather stations for timely and accurate decision making for pay-outs.

My conversation with Dr Shukri about the possibility of integrating mobile money into the project to address the challenge of absence of banks in rural Ethiopia, revealed the huge untapped market for Mobile Banking in that country. However, the success of such services depends on a convincing business case for both the banks and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). Most importantly, however, is the state of telecommunication infrastructure and regulation in the country. These need to be in place for services and applications to thrive. With this huge investment

Outside Ethiopia, I believe it is time for African countries to take advantage of the increasing mobile phone penetrations in the continent beyond social networking to general development applications such as for agriculture, health, education, and rural development.

To listen to the audio recording of the event, visit Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Cover Page of the World Bank Report

Photo Credit: The World Bank

There is no doubt that the current surge in mobile innovations for agricultural development is defying the normal progressive growth of agricultural technologies over the past decades. For centuries, innovations in agricultural technologies have been progressively slow. The emergent of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their innovative use to support agricultural extension and advisory services has, however, changed the history forever. According to the World Bank report Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile, close to 6 billion mobile phones are in use today, a jump from less than 1 billion subscriptions in 2003. About 77% of the 6 billion subscriptions is located in the developing nations in which 70% of the world’s poor whose main source of income and employment comes from the agricultural sector.

Agricultural Technologies and the Future In her 1991 paper “Beyond Tractors: The History of Technology in American Agriculture,” Deborah Fitzgerald, Professor of the History of Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) at MIT, argued that the history of agricultural technology is in a very nascent stage of development, and it is difficult to predict the outlines of a more orderly, systematic future. Barely 20 years after her observation, the developments in mobile technology for agriculture have confirmed her argument. Little is known about any prediction of the current growth of mobile technologies, especially in the world’s poorest regions. It is also becoming more difficult to predict what the market will look like in the next decade given the fast pace at which the technology is growing.  

So Why This Sudden Spurt? The 2nd chapter of the World Bank report referenced above titled “Mobilizing the Agricultural Value Chain” has identified a number of factors that are driving the increased adoption of mobile phones for agriculture in the developing nations:

  • Improved accessibility and affordability through expansion of mobile networks.
  • Increased capacity or bandwidth availability on mobile networks as the technology evolves.
  • Increasing data-enabled mobile devices with increasing affordability.
  • Innovative development of remote wireless sensors and identification technologies.
  • Increasing availability of specialized mobile services targeted to specific agricultural functions.

These and other factors, such as wide ownership of mobile phones, instant and convenient service delivery, increasing functions, and falling prices of mobile handsets, will continue to drive its adoption.    

Looking into the Future of Mobile Innovations for Agriculture

Photo Credit: American Public Health Association

According to USAID, innovations must lead to substantial (not incremental) improvements  in addressing development challenges. But this does not seem to be the case in the mobile agricultural sector. The role of mobile agricultural projects in addressing development challenges in the developing nations is yet to be empirically tested in most countries. Anecdotal results have been reported here and there, but there is little to cite about any substantial impact on agriculture and rural development. An interesting trend with the mobile innovations for agriculture pointed out by the report is that, the applications are usually designed locally and for specific target markets, with localized content specific to the languages, crop types, and farming methods. It continues that while these local designs may offer exciting opportunities for local content and applications development, they may also limit the economies of scale realizable from expanding from pilot programs into mass markets, potentially hindering the spread of new and promising applications and services. So while development practitioners are careful not to repeat the traditional “technology transfer” approach in the ICTs for development sector, they are also faced with the limitations of scalability of the locally developed mobile applications for agriculture.  

Is Reverse Innovation a Possible Solution to Limited Scaling of Locally Developed Mobile Apps? The local app development market in the emerging economies is being boosted by the proliferation of Technology Hubs & Parks in these countries. But what are the approaches to development of applications within these hubs? How can we learn from the past challenges with technology transfer and the current scaling limitations of locally developed apps for agriculture? The concept of reverse innovation developed by Vijay Govindarajan, and Chris Trimble and explained in details with practical applications in their book, “Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere”,  could bring these two challenges together. A key component of the concept is about building Local Growth Teams (LGTs). Within the mobile agricultural sector, LGTs comprising of ICT developers, marketing specialists, and content developers in the emerging economies with strong link with global market could be developed. This will ensure that locally developed ICTs apps with inexpensive models and limited infrastructure to meet the needs of developing nations, can be easily repackaged as low-cost innovative goods for Western buyers. This could address the scaling challenge brought up by the report and at the same time limit the traditional diffusion of technologies from the developed to developing nations.  

Oversights: Mobile Solutions for R&D and Data Collection? I would like to recap my recent work on “Mapping ICTs Along the Agricultural Value Chain” for USAID’s Global Broadband and Innovations (GBI) program. Two key components of the value chain, which seem to be overlooked, are ICTs for agricultural research and development (R&D), and ICTs for data collection to inform monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Firstly, mobile technologies for agricultural R&D are emerging, but due to the traditional under-estimation and under-investment in agricultural R&D in developing countries, little attention is being paid to its potential. There is huge potential in the use of mobile technologies to support the work of agricultural researchers, agricultural science students, extension staffs, and farmers to facilitate access to scientific knowledge and exchange of information between and among these actors. Unfortunately, this has been overlooked by this important report. Secondly, mobile technologies are being used along the agricultural value chain for data collection in order to inform policy and decision-making. The report did mention briefly the importance of mobile in agricultural data collection, for example the work of Grameen Foundations Community Knowledge Worker (CKW) program in Uganda and the Reuters Market Light (RML) in India. But in addition to these programs, there are host of new mobile applications that are being used in this area that need to be acknowledged. Examples include iFormBuilder, EpiSurveyor, Open data Kit, among others. These new mobile applications are essential for the work of extension staff – both public and private to facilitate their work. Most importantly, timely and accurate data through these applications will lead to actions that will benefit the smallholder farmer in a number of ways, thereby increasing their productivity.

Conclusion The growth of mobile technologies for agriculture has outpaced the speed of past technological developments within the sector. While the invention of tractors in the 1800’s was acclaimed a significant breakthrough for agriculture, not even the green revolution in the 1900’s can be compared to the extensiveness and intensiveness of mobile technologies for agriculture. The World Bank report reference in this post has done excellent job by carefully selecting experts in the field of ICTs for development to delve into a number of cases worth following. Specifically on the second chapter that deals with mobile technologies and agriculture, I believe practitioners, researchers, technology developers, policy makers, and users of agriculture and mobile technologies should look critically into the recommendations given at the end – business models, ICT skills and the supporting infrastructure to insure the growth and sustenance of the revolution.

Headshot of Melanne Verveer

Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer. (Photo: US Dept of State)

On Monday, July 23, 2012 the Center for American Progress hosted Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer for a discussion on “Women’s Economic Success and Global Growth.” Amb. Verveer’s talk focused on the crucial role women play in sustainable development and economic growth worldwide. US women generate $3.5 trillion yearly, and women’s employment in developing countries contributes more to the global economy than China. By 2050, women will control 2/3 of all spending worldwide. Noting that women traditionally spend their earnings in sectors that create a multiplier effect (i.e., health, education, food), Amb. Verveer emphasized the tremendous consumer power women will wield in global markets. She also highlighted growing research that shows how countries where women’s rights are more closely equal to those of men are more peaceful and prosperous than  countries that ignore, marginalize or limit the role of women.

Amb. Verveer spoke of three main areas the State Department focuses on increasing the role and influence of women: Economic Empowerment, Women in Development, and Peace and Security.  Within the Women in Development sector, three initiatives discussed fit squarely within Integra’s areas of expertise: Feed the Future (Agriculture), Global Climate Change Initiative (Environment) and mWomen (Information and Communications Technology).

Agriculture: Women are vital to agricultural development, often making up the majority of farmers in developing countries and the backbone of agriculture-based economies. FAO reports claim that if men and women farmers had equal access to credit, training, property rights and technical inputs, yields could improve 20 to 30 percent and the number of malnourished people worldwide could be reduced by 150 million people.

Environment: Women bear the burdens of climate change disproportionately more than men. Yet women are uniquely empowered to address climate change because of their central role in agriculture, forest management, and running the home (i.e., making crucial energy decisions as pertains to energy sources used in the home).

ICT4D: Increased technological access creates opportunities for financial security and independence. With mobile access, women are able to gain information about the current market, including data on pricing and weather systems, in addition to business insights and trainings, access to support networks, and the ability to transfer and save funds. “The significance of mobile technology cannot be underrated,” said Ambassador Verveer, who emphasized both the economic and social value of mobile technology. While 350 million women still do not have access to cell phones, the State Department is working to bridge this gap in connectivity through various initiatives, including the GSMA mWomen initiative. mWomen is committed to reducing this gender gap in connectivity by 50%.

In each development sector highlighted, Ambassador Verveer reiterated that gender equality is not only smart economics, but in line with US values and “a moral imperative of the 21st Century.” While the State Department and USAID continue to add gender guidance components to trainings and major international initiatives, true change will only be achieved once gender equality becomes institutionalized and integrated across all bureaus. Women’s rights need to be viewed as human rights essential to fostering economic growth, social stability and a more peaceful prosperity worldwide.

 

To view full event video, click here. To read Ambassador Verveer’s article on “Why Women Are a Foreign Policy Issue,” click here

 

Produce at market

Credit: Google

Food security in the Horn of Africa hinges on greater investment in ICT infrastructure and capacity building. In large part, this will depend on the transfer of technology. But experts note that even a modest increase in technology transfer and information, through the agriculture value chain, could improve yields, distribution and ultimately strengthen food security.

The World Food Program (WFP) backed an initiative in March this year that is a step in the right direction. WFP provided US$45, 000 worth of ICTs for a Food Security Graduate Program at Addis Ababa University. The ICTs provided the institution with the tools and facility needed to boost efforts to develop a local hub for knowledge generation and dissemination for food security. A weak policy and financial environment has led to inadequate research, a lack of appropriate technologies and weak dissemination of existing smart tools. So, lowering food insecurity in the region requires greater effort.

Improving food security is a key development challenge for the Horn of Africa, the world’s most food insecure region according to the FAO. Over 45% of the 160 million strong population remain food insecure, higher than the average even for Saharan Africa. The World Bank says the region must attain a 4% expansion in GDP and similar growth in agricultural expansion, along with lower population growth rates, to become food secure in the medium-term. This all seems like a catch-22 situation for an already difficult political and economic landscape. Where do we start?

According to USAID’s analysis, The Magnitude and Causes of Food Insecurity and Prospects for Change, improving the economic policy environment—and a host of other structural problems such as security— is key. So, while ICTs can help to improve the region’s precarious food security situation, much more must be done to create an ICT enabling environment— further evidence that ICTs are merely tools.

One structural challenge is the cumbersome nature of intra-regional trade. ICTs, particularly logistics technology and applications used to speed up cross border movement, could help to better move food surplus from country to country (and region to region). At various points in recent time countries in the lower part of the Horn of Africa, including Kenya and Tanzania, have been in a position to shift their surplus to neighboring Ethiopia, and other northern states that are perennially food insecure.

However, the food security and ICT discussion in this region, as I have contended, is very complex. One must consider all the systemic domains and even broad issues of income distribution, which slants the distribution of food in Kenya and Tanzania, even in times of food excess on a national scale, in the favor of a few.

 

Credit: Google

Sustained economic development, including efforts to reap and secure gains in food security, in Africa hinges on regional integration. The impetus for the rapid pace at which regional integration projects were deepened across the continent, in the last decade, underscores this. In particular, African states acknowledged the political and economic benefits of regional integration, as per the general objectives of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement in 2000, the launch of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in 2001, and the emergence of the African Union in 2002.

Nonetheless, the African integration processes have a far way to go. Although people move relatively freely across borders in ECOWAS and other sub-regions, much more ought to be done to create a critical mass of people who believe in the vision. The fact that regional integration can result in tangible benefits for the average African, by putting food on their plates cheaper and more efficiently, should be a strong selling point. But inefficiencies within the existing regional frameworks impede these significant gains.

According to the FAO, intra-regional trade account for a mere 13% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s US$6 billion food import bill. As Vanessa Adams, Director, USAID West Africa Trade Hub, noted at a recent panel discussion, “whether food is sourced nationally, regionally or internationally, the need for faster and cheaper transport of food is urgent. It also offers promising business opportunities…” This observation is critical as upwards of a third of all foods grown in Africa never gets to market in edible fashion; it’s wasted…and that’s not because it reached anyone’s plate. To a great extent, this is due to poor transportation, but, in a broader sense, it is much more a matter of poor value chain management and practices.

My main assertion is that an inverse relationship exists between transport infrastructure and trade—and ultimately economic development. The World Bank corroborates this view in its declaration that a 10% decrease in transport costs results in a 20% increase in trade. But the extent to which logistics technologies have been leveraged and effectively deployed to warehouse and transport farm produce on the continent is limited. Some might add that the roadways across Africa, particularly West Africa, are far better today than they were a decade ago, and to that I would say, yes, but transport in a regionally integrated context depends on much more than improved roadways, though important. These inefficiencies underline my emphasis on the link between regional integration and food security.

In other words, inefficient regional trade breeds food insecurity. So, until the cross border impediments to the free flow of goods are removed, this transportation challenge will remain and food insecurity will persist!

Below are a few anecdotes from business owners faced with transportation challenges in West Africa’s ECOWAS area. The notes were shared by Vanessa Adams during the panel discussion.

  • If we could cross borders faster, we could make 12 trips to Accra instead of current 3, reducing costs. (Furniture)
  • We’ve been ETLS registered for 6 years. But countries still impose high duties, raising our delivered prices by 30%. We can’t compete against imports! (Juice producer)
  • ECOWAS misplaced our application for ETLS Registration. When will application process be “on-line”? (Agriculture trader)
  • We sized our plant for an ECOWAS-wide market. That didn’t happen and we’re now operating at 20% capacity. (Paint)
  • We intend to invest $5 million and hire 120 staff – IF we can be assured of access to a larger market. (Furniture)

Agriculture is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and this makes finding a balance between increasing food production and limiting greenhouse gas emissions a major challenge.

In fact, there are few global research projects with a focus on reducing agricultural greenhouse gases, compared to the energy and transport sectors. But this could all change for the better.

Over a year and a half ago New Zealand launched the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, and this year its membership grew to 30 countries. The Alliance aims to coordinate the research of the world’s top scientists in agricultural emissions in a bid to find ways of increasing food production and ensuring food security without increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Alliance has successfully increased international cooperation and investment in research for livestock, paddy rice production systems and technologies to limit the loss of carbon and nitrogen from crops and soils.

 

USAID representatives yesterday at a panel discussion hosted by the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa came out strongly in support of Food Security through Agricultural Development.  Rob Bertram, a biotechnology Team Leader in EGAT’s office of Environment and Science Policy, spoke about the need to increase productivity and to facilitate regional trade, noting that 90% of potential gains from agricultural trade in Africa are in regional markets. He made the point that the 2008 food price crisis illustrated that African countries cannot depend on imports for food security – they must work together to meet their own food security needs.

His point was made as part of a discussion on USAID’s Feed the Future program and how it reflects the principles of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) put forward by the African Union.  He noted that Feed the Future takes CAADP as a model and therefore includes a focus on things such as smallholder growth, science and technology, and natural resource management.

Ms. Rhoda Tumuslime, an elected commissioner of the African Union, spoke of Feed the Future as a “great hope” for Africa, and expressed her grave concern that “ongoing discussions” on capital hill could adversely impact the program.

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