HIGHLIGHTS BEST ARDYIS ESSAYS

Name and profile: Chris Mwangi, IT specialist, 23 years old.
Country: Kenya, East Africa
Title of essay: Impacts of ICT on livelihoods: Experiences from a Kenyan rural
youth
Extracts/summary
To demonstrate how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is impacting on
youth in the agricultural sector in rural Kenya, the case of a male youth (Mr. Kamau) is
presented. He owns a Safaricom M-Pesa kiosk. Mobile phone industry in Kenya has grown
rapidly, since its introduction in the year 2000. Among the four mobile phones service
providers, Safaricom has wide range of services. The services include, 1) mobile money
transfer referred to as “M-Pesa”, 2) mobile money banking known as “M-Kesho”, 3) provision
of information on agricultural produce market through a service referred to as “411 Get it”.
The M-Pesa kiosk own by Kamau has been in operation for the last three years. He has a
solid client base. From the revenue generated, he has diversified into farming. He receives
agronomic practices through the “Organic Farmer” e-bulletin via his GPRS enabled mobile
phone. In conclusion Kamau’s M-Pesa shop has contributed to an increase in local
spending, by way of reducing the number of community members going to town for financial
transactions. M-Pesa and M-Kesho have improved the rural economy through simplifying
payments for consumables and farm inputs and banking.
Agriculture,
Rural
Development
and and
Agriculture,
Rural
Development
Youth
in the
Information
Society
Youth
in the
Information
Society
(ARDYIS)
project
(ARDYIS)
Project
Essaycontest
contest
Essay
Something to know about Chris: “I have worked with Micronet Limited, a consultancy firm in
ARDYIS project
Finalists’
essays andfinals
profiles
Essay contest
software, hardware and computer supplies. I also learnt and received practical attachment
from Egerton University Main Library increasing my experience in the aforementioned
training fields”.
« Youth finding solutions to challenges in
agriculture and rural development using ICTs! »
Name and profile: Maureen Agena, student in information sciences, 25
2010
years old.
Country : Uganda, East Africa
2010
Finalists’ essays
and profiles
Title of essay: Increasing
Rural Agricultural Productivity through Technology: “A story of a
young modern fruit grower in Apac, Northern Uganda”.
Extracts/summary
Summaries and
finalists’ profiles
Mr. Gilbert Egwel, a 25 year old native of Apac and a small scale fruit farmer from Akere
parish in Maruzi County, uses ICTs innovatively to improve on his agricultural produce in a
unique way. In 2005 when the Kubere Information Centre (KIC) a telecentre in Apac started
airing its radio agricultural talk shows to the community over ‘Radio Apac’, Gilbert learnt from
one of the shows how to set up a nursery bed and manage a fruit farm. (…) He sometimes
gets paid through his Mobile phone... Also with the mobile phone, Gilbert says that he has
also subscribed to MTN Market price updates to receive weekly updates on market prices.
(…) From the small profits that Gilbert makes, he has been able to pay his tuition for two
years at Gulu University in Uganda for a Bachelor degree in Development Studies. The
various ICTs he uses have made marketing of his seedlings and fruits cost effective. Having
In partnership with:
In partnership with:
FARA,PAFPNet/SPC,
PAFPNet/SPC,AYF,
AYF,CAFAN,
CAFAN,Yam-Pukri,
Yam-Pukri,ANAFE
ANAFE
FARA,
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attended a web 2.0 training early this year, Gilbert was able join two online platforms of
Facebook and twitter. Despite the various successes, Gilbert has made out of this fruit
production, he is still faced with a number of challenges….
Something to know about Maureen:
Maureen is a new media enthusiast and trainer; she is the
information officer for Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) whose Mission is to promote
and support the use of Information and communication technologies (ICTs) among women
and women organizations in Uganda.
Name and profile: Gerald Mangena, 24 years old, degree in accountancy,
interest in ICT4D.
dictate the price at which to buy from them. In order to address the marketing/advertisement
challenge faced by most farmers especially the young person, a tool that could be used to
expose specific agricultural products produced by particular youths including contact details
to a variety of buyers could be developed. This tool can provide both audio and visual
information and would be developed by using Free and Open Source Software such as
Dreamweaver and easy Php for web designing, MySQL for databases and Wikipedia for
blogs and wikis. This tool is a listing website that can be designed specifically for the
marketing of agricultural products for young farmers. It is a marketing/advertisement tool that
is structured to link various young agricultural participants and actors, organizations/
institutions including Zambia’s local agricultural features and practices with both local and
international audience. Furthermore, it serves as a directory or compass for users to enable
them locate or access agricultural services or products of their choice within the location of
their preference.
Something to know about Isaac :
Isaac is the founder and Executive Director for The Ndola
Resource Centre, a youth and women organization that specializes in using Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) for youth and women development.
Country: Zimbabwe, Southern Africa
Title of essay
: How can ICTs be used to improve access to market for
agricultural products from Zimbabwe?
Name and profile: Samantha-Kaye Denise Christie, 20 years old.
Extracts/summary
It is 7:00 in the morning, and a 28 year old Zimbabwean new farmer gets up to prepare for
the day. This season she expects a good 500 tons of high quality potatoes. Today will be
her first day of selling and she is still wondering where all these potatoes will be sold. She
takes out her mobile phone, sends an instruction via Short Message Services (SMS) and in
a short moment, a big grin appears on her face as she has just received a confirmation of an
order to supply a ton of potatoes each week for the next twelve weeks, thanks to a service
introduced by a local software company in partnership with mobile phone service providers
to help match farmers’ offers with buyers’ needs. (…) To avoid total and partial failure in the
use of ICTs to achieve this noble objective, whereby the intended beneficiaries end up not
using the technologies at all and resources being wasted, the solutions must be guided by
three key elements that are intertwined and fundamentally inseparable: types of farmers,
possible markets, and the kind of technology that can be placed in between.
Something to know about Gerald: He maintains his own ‘bag of ideas’ that he believes will be
great turning points for Africa. His vision is to see Africa develop into an Information Society
with its own internationally competitive ICT brands in software and infrastructure
development by establishing his multi-national ICT business and research institute, a vision
he has termed “The Afro Dream.”
Name and profile: Isaac Chanda, 24 years old, ICT4D specialist
Title of essay: ICT’s: Are they really the solution to challenges faced by Hanoverian
farmers?
Extracts/summary
Why is agriculture being denied their competence in strengthening the Jamaican economy?
In recent times, it has been recognized that this industry is faced with a number of
challenges…challenges which need solutions. How about trying ICTs for a change? (…)
One is yet to assess the success of implementing ICT to aid in rural agricultural development
for third world countries. This paper aims to do a review of challenges faced in Hanoverian
agricultural industry in Jamaica, the possibilities ICTs may bring to solve the challenges and
some of the difficulties that may be involved in the transfer of this new technology. (…) I
dream that one day the Hanoverian agricultural sector will have its rightful place in the
economy. The implementation of ICTs is a step worth taking. Yes, undoubtedly it is costly
and has social and economic challenges, but as a popular Jamaican saying goes "If you
want good yuh nose haffi run" [If you want good, you really have to sacrifice and work for it].
However, consideration should be given to the educational levels of the farmers before ICTs
can be truly effective.
Something to know about Samantha:
“Learning is also my passion and thus has helped me to
maintain a 3.86 G.P.A during my first year at University… I live by my former college motto
“The End Crowns the work.””
Country: Zambia, Southern Africa
Title of essay:
Country: Jamaica, Caribbean
Find the young Farmer, Locating young farmers without
Name and profile:
limitations
Tyrone Christopher HALL, 23 years old, student in
International Development and Social Change, interest in ICT4D.
Extracts/summary
Young farmers have very poor methods of advertisement and marketing for their produce.
Owing to this challenge, they are exploited by the few buyers that buy their products as they
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Country: Jamaica, Caribbean
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Title of essay: Tackling Jamaica’s Two Main Agricultural Plagues with ICTs: Praedial Larcenry
Name and profile:
and Information Asymmetries/Poor Marketing
Ruben Nui, 21 years old, student in Banking and Finance;
comes from a farming family.
Extracts/summary
Country : Papua New Guinea, Pacific islands
In my essay, I argue that there are two key problems which are crippling Jamaica’s
agricultural sector. These problems are: a) praedial larceny, an organized criminal activity
geared at perpetuating the theft of agricultural stocks; and b) information asymmetries which
hinder the development of a culturally appropriate, efficient and effective marketing system. I
contend that it is imperative to tackle these challenges because of the multilevel economic
importance of agriculture to the island. The essence of this essay is the solutions using ICTs:
a) a mobile security innovation to combat praedial larceny known as an Electronic Laser
Fence Security Alert System and, b) a mobile solution to poor marketing called a SMS
Information Database (SMS ID).
Title of essay: Mobile Market Information Service for fresh produce growers,
Something to know about Tyrone: Hall enjoys debating and participated in three world universities
debating championships (Canada (2007), Thailand (2008), and Ireland (2009)). He was the
highest ranked debater from Latin America and the Caribbean in 2009.
Name and profile Riten Chand Gosai; student in agricultural studies, 21
years old.
vendors and consumers in Papua New Guinea
Extracts/summary
Accessing market information in a timely manner is important to make informed marketing
decisions. The mobile market information service provided by Fresh Produce Development
Agency (FPDA) and Digicel (PNG Limited) with support for AusAID for fresh produce
growers, vendors and consumers in PNG is a brilliant concept. As many people in the rural
areas in PNG are using the Digicel phones, the introduction of this service has enabled
farmers to know about market situations in other major centers in the country. In this essay I
would like to describe how this innovation works and my own experience in using the service
as well as the lessons learnt and what I think could be done to improve the system. (…)
PNG has more than 20 urban markets. The mobile market information service caters for only
eight urban markets. (…) The information guide such as flyers, pamphlets and brochures are
written in English. However, English is not widely spoken in PNG…
Something to know about Ruben: “I come from a farming family. I support my family in producing
Country: Fiji, Pacific islands
and supplying vegetables to urban markets and fast food outlets within my hometown”.
Title of essay:
The use of ICTs to address information and
communication poverty and reluctance of farmers to commercialize in
the Fiji
Extracts/summary
Name and profile: Itodo Samuel Anthony, 24 years old, graduate of petroleum engineering
Country: Nigeria, West Africa
Agriculture continues to be the economic mainstay of the Fiji Islands and is metaphorically
referred to as the backbone of the country. The sector, however, is not immune to obscurity
and faces many challenges. Two of such challenges are the lack of agricultural information
being disseminated to needy farmers and reluctance of small scale farmers to commercialize
production. The essay examines how information and communication technology can be
used to address these predicaments. Firstly, it discusses how information poverty can be
eradicated by the use of mobile phone applications, rural ‘telecentres’ with internet, video
satellite presentations and the use of traditional media namely, radio and television. Then it
entails how small holder farmers in Fiji can be encouraged to commercialize through
interactive use of ICTs. These include enhancing production techniques, improving market
access, stock control, quality control and the use of global positioning systems (GPS) in
innovative farming. The essay also includes several examples of technologies that have
been successfully implemented in other parts of the world in similar situations as the Fiji
Islands.
Something to know about Riten
“There is a pre-conceived idea amongst youth in Fiji that
Agriculture and its studies are for the rural populace and weak students. I want to work
towards breaking this stereotype and generate awareness that the less effort we put towards
agriculture, the poorer we become”
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Title of essay:
Using ICTs to bridge the agricultural extension gap and improving market
access for rural farmers in Nigeria: a practical approach
Extracts/summary
Though ICTs are not a panacea to agricultural and rural development, they have the
potential of bridging the information gap for rural farmers with respect to innovative practices,
government policies, credit facilities, accessing markets and acting as an effective tool for
policy advocacy. The challenge thus is how can we use ICTs to improve agricultural
extension to rural dwellers and improve access to markets? To get this right we need to put
in place an effective framework, in terms of appropriate policies and programs that will
harness the already well-known potentials of ICTs. This Framework (…) includes the
creation of an ICT Volunteer Group in the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) of Nigeria;
the full implementation of a Rural ICT Development Policy; the Formation of young farmers
clubs in secondary schools; ensure a policy where direct communication exists between the
various agricultural extension agencies, policy implementation agencies, credit institutions,
prospective agricultural markets and the ICT centres in rural areas. Having established this
Platform, adequate ICT content and usage for extension services and market access
purposes should be developed.
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Something to know about Samuel: “I belong to the NYSC Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
Awareness Creation (MAC) volunteer group responsible for advocacy and facilitation of
programs to meeting the MDGs. I am presently serving as a secondary school teacher in
Delta State of Nigeria. My hobbies include writing (poetry, essays and short stories),
watching detective movies, reading detective novels and playing football”.
mener des études sur leurs causes dans une région bien précise et se servir du « Global
Positioning System » (GPS) pour ressortir sur des cartes les différentes zones et leurs
problèmes prioritaires. Les résultats peuvent être envoyés par le net pour une plus large
diffusion dans le temps et dans l’espace. (…) Les résultats placés sur le net peuvent faire
l’objet de commentaires, sur autorisation, par les personnes qui y accèdent. Ces
commentaires vont générer un échange diversifié des expériences. Ceci entraîne une plus
grande compréhension du problème soulevé.
Name and profile: Inoussa Traoré, 25 ans, étudiant en sciences économiques
Country: Burkina Faso, Afrique de l’Ouest
Name and profile: Gabriel DACKO GOUDJO, 21 ans, étudiant en ingénierie des télécoms.
Title of essay: Les TIC et l’accès au marché des produits agricoles au Burkina
Country: Cameroun, Afrique centrale
Faso: la valorisation du canal de l’information
Title of essay:
Extracts/summary
Comment les TIC peuvent-elles être utilisées pour améliorer l’accès au marché
des produits agricoles au Cameroun
Le principal canal par lequel les TIC peuvent améliorer l’accès au marché des produits
agricoles est celui de l’information. Ainsi, à travers les informations agricoles sur le web/TV,
la radio et sur support multimédia, certaines informations concernant le prix des produits, la
disponibilité des stocks, la qualité, l’origine etc., peuvent être obtenues. Egalement, les TIC
peuvent résoudre la question de la traçabilité des produits agricoles et résoudre ainsi les
problèmes de qualité et de normes. Aussi, à travers Internet, la vente et l’achat de produits
agricoles en ligne deviennent possible ; il en est de même de l’usage du téléphone portable
dans la circulation des informations et la conclusion des contrats. De nombreuses
applications existent au Burkina Faso quant à l’utilisation de ces technologies dans la
commercialisation. Toutefois, l’existence d’une multitude de sources d’informations, chacune
prenant en compte uniquement une partie des informations pose la problématique de
l’efficacité de tous ces dispositifs et donc la question de la centralisation. C’est pourquoi
nous proposons la réalisation d’un observatoire des marchés et produits agricoles. Cet
observatoire sera un outil d’aide à la décision et permettra une plus grande efficacité dans la
gestion de l’information agricole.
Something to knw about Inoussa :
« Je suis actuellement inscrit en première année de thèse de
doctorat en Sciences économiques et de Gestion au laboratoire d’Analyse et de Politique
Economique de l’Université de Ouagadougou ».
Extracts/summary
Avec l’avènement des coopératives agricoles au Cameroun, l’implication des jeunes
diplômés dans le domaine de l’agriculture offre des perspectives nouvelles. Dans l’optique
d’améliorer l’accès au marché des produits agricoles, notre proposition est axée autour
d’une stratégie déclinée en quatre fondamentaux. L’une des propositions est de créer un
centre de connaissance villageois. Il utilisera le matériel mis à disposition par les
Télécentres Communautaires Polyvalents pour offrir des services très diversifiés et surtout
définis selon les besoins locaux en information. Il y aura des informations, administratives,
techniques et commerciales agricoles, des formations techniques et managerielles, des
informations administratives, etc. Plusieurs moyens de communication seront utilisés pour
assurer les échanges, le bon déroulement des formations ou des campagnes de
sensibilisation parmi lesquels: tableaux d'affichage, projection, haut-parleurs. Un agent de
relais communautaire (ARC) ayant des connaissances en TIC, agriculture et animation
communautaire assistera les producteurs dans la recherche des informations et l’ouverture à
la toile internationale dans le salon virtuel communautaire (SVC). Le SVC, plateforme web
sécurisée qui intègre une base de donnée géo-référencée sous forme de Système
d’Information Géographique, voix, données et vidéo.
Something to know about Gabriel:
« Je suis le fils d’un producteur agricole d’environ 2 hectares.
J’occupe le poste de secrétaire général du club des jeunes entrepreneurs des étudiants
issus du Laboratoire d’Ingénierie en Création d’Entreprise. Je jouis d’une bonne
connaissance, des techniques de vulgarisation agricole ».
Name and profile: Dolly Angèle NGANDJOU MELA, 22 ans, étudiante en psychologie
Country: Cameroun, Afrique centrale
Title of essay:
Comment les TIC peuvent-elles être utilisées pour le plaidoyer et le lobbying en
vue de promouvoir l'agriculture au Cameroun
Extracts/summary
Les structures venant en appui au monde agricole doivent mener des actions urgentes pour
améliorer la baisse des rendements à laquelle font face les agriculteurs. Elles peuvent
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The purpose of the ARDYIS project is to raise youth awareness and improve their capacity
on agricultural and rural development issues in ACP countries using ICTs. It’s implemented
in collaboration with an Advisory Committee composed of the following key ACP institutions:
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), African Network for Agriculture,
Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE), Pacific Agriculture and Forestry
Policy Network (PAFPNet), Caribbean farmers’ Network (CAFAN), Yam-Pukri association,
African Youth Foundation (AYF). ARDYIS is a framework for actions and its activities will
contribute to the promotion of opportunities for youth in the agricultural, rural development
and ICT sectors.
Contact: [email protected] - http://ardyis.cta.int
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