Kenyan Farmers Find Information They Can Sow
Kenyan farmers, who have suffered from a lack of practical information, are now smiling as they discover innovative information management tools. Reuben Kyama reports about BioVision’s Infonet for Kenyan farmers.
 Agriculture is Kenya’s economic mainstay, with a 25 percent contribution to GDP. It accounts for 65 per cent of foreign export earnings and 80 per cent of formal employment, according to the Institute of Economic Affairs, a leading public-policy think tank in Kenya.
In policy briefs that reflect its strategy for revitalizing the agriculture sector, the country’s Ministry of Agriculture emphasises the crucial role of information access. The Government is planning to bolster farmers’ capacity to make sound decisions – particularly on better crop husbandry and finding markets for their produce.
“Farmers in Kenya face huge constraints on a daily basis due to an inability to access information that would boost proper crop and livestock husbandry,” says Andreas Schriber, the CEO of the BioVision Foundation.
infonet-biovision.org is a web-based information tool offering trainers, extension workers and farmers a quick access to up-to-date and locally relevant information in order to optimise their livelihoods in a safe, effective, and ecologically sound way. The information presented is specifically relevant for Africa and its inhabitants, many examples and case studies are from Kenya or East African countries, but are valid for other tropical countries as well.To increase information distribution, BioVision works together with Avallain (www.avallain.com) and other partners on sustainable technologies to make use of the well-advanced mobile networks for regular updates and feedback.
A key donor for this project is the Liechtenstein Development Service (LED), which has made an initial input of US$ 1 million. Other donors include the BioVision Foundation as well as corporate and private organisations in Switzerland. The website is hosted by the Nairobi-based International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE).
www.infonet-biovision.org
The BioVision Foundation, in conjunction with international and local scientists, have developed an information portal, infonet-biovision.org, to aid in the dissemination of quality information that is relevant to farmers’ needs and their respective agro-ecologies.
The project, in its second phase of implementation, has concentrated on creating this awareness among farmers, schools, extension officers, trainers and non-governmental organisations that work with farmers.
To achieve a wide range of coverage, a diverse approach is necessary. Since internet access is still limited in Kenya and elsewhere in rural Africa, Infonet is also available offline. “As a first step, we developed a procedure to save the entire system on CD or a memory stick,” Mr Schriber adds. Thus farmers can use the database on any computer available.
A one-stop shop for farming information
Infonet-biovision.org aims at making research findings as well as new technologies freely and conveniently available to the general public. The website is also available in CD format and offers a vision of becoming “a versatile farming information hub for the next decade and beyond.” It will be a one-stop shop for all users, the organisation says.
Launched in Kenya in October 2007, the portal has transformed farmers’ livelihoods by helping them identify glaring threats to farm yields such as pests, diseases and declining soil fertility.
“Other areas covered by Infonet include making information accessible to farmers that would boost their water conservation skills, water harvesting and drip irrigation. This is in the light of dwindling water per capita availability occasioned by climate change,” says Mr Schriber.
Kenya is currently the hub for this information portal, although its access is worldwide. The BioVision Foundation and other partners in this project intend to replicate it in other African countries. The number of people visiting the site is growing significantly, and they are not only from the sub-Saharan African countries but also from the USA and Asia.
Information is key to improve farming
The challenges facing small-scale farmers in Kenya, and the African continent in general, demand faster redress using formulas that depart from the traditional norm. This would include, Mr Schriber says, devising innovative channels of disseminating information that is crucial to helping farmers undertake ecologically sound methods of dealing with pests and diseases.
“Infonet acts like Google for farmers, where they can easily access information on their most urgent problems,” says Mr Schriber. “This information is also relevant, practical and approved by scientists.”
Information accessed by farmers through the organisation has also been filtered and condensed to make it portable, compared to inadequate library facilities in rural areas.
“We are also receiving positive feedback and requests for more information from farmers through e-mails and SMS on a daily basis,” he says, adding that the need was high for farmers to access updated information on scientifically proven and workable solutions to prevent disease in humans, animals and crops. This way, farmers can safeguard their incomes.
Mobile extension planned
“So already today, infonet-biovision.org works even in the famous ‘one hundred dollar’ laptops and computers with no Internet connection,” explains Schriber.
BioVision is also working on technologies that can link information on the Internet portal so that it is accessible on mobile phones. With the current significant mobile phone penetration in rural areas, farmers will share this information through text messages. The offline version on CD can load on a computer to create a complete library for farmers. This means farmers do not necessarily need a connection to the Internet to access it.
Field tests have been carried out in rural regions of Kenya to gauge the efficacy of Infonet, says the BioVision executive. The pilot tests had a significant impact even on the computer-illiterate rural farmers in remote places, he says. “Many were converted in twenty minutes to computer-users,” he said.
He opines that Infonet has made farmers feel appreciated, aside from boosting their production capacities. “Likewise, farmers can now understand changing dynamics in farming and how to improve soil fertility, crop and animal husbandry,” says Mr Schriber.
“We must not waste time; that is why we are using the best technologies available,” he says. His dream is that through the Infonet-BioVision project, more small-scale farmers and communities in Africa will be empowered to improve their lives, while at the same time conserving natural resources and the environment.
By Reuben Kyama and Naftali Mwaura
March 12, 2009
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