Agriculture Extension 2.0

 

“Effective extension depends on sound intelligence about disease distribution and the damage it causes. National governments need to understand the risks posed to new areas and the actions required to control disease through sound research planning and identification of best management strategies” – Fen Beed, Head Plant Pathologist for IITA East Africa.

In the first quarter of 2009 alone, three new crop diseases have struck East Africa. The Cassava Streak Virus, Banana Bunchy Top Virus and a mutation of the Banana Bacterial Wilt have attacked and devastated farms around the region, exacerbating the prevailing food crisis. But do Uganda’s agricultural scientists have the potential to confront the numerous challenges?

Training CKWs to assess large numbers of growers through systematic and quantitative surveillance can become a promising system for any agriculture based organization to leverage. A mobile crop monitoring system will ultimately allow Research Institutions to target data collection, analyze collected data in a centralized platform, visualize information in a digital map, interact directly with small farmers in the field and pinpoint the location of potential ecological threats (for data validation through soil and plant sampling or for implementing emergency quarantine protocol).

Knowing where a disease occurs allows organizations such as IITA to target particular areas and plan control programs. This requires careful organization and mobilization of resources. Even though IITA already has effective recommendations for managing Banana Disease, it lacks mechanisms for presenting them directly to farmers and monitoring their uptake. This Community Knowledge Worker initiative addresses this issue by training CKWs and enabling them with sophisticated mobile technology to provide direct action to help small farmers in remote areas and provide a Research Institution with a local link to monitor changes in disease management.

It is important to undertake systematic and comprehensive surveys of banana growing areas to get an update on the distribution of banana disease and control strategies being used by growers. The surveys provide the opportunity to determine spread and identify reasons why control strategies may not have been adopted. Where control methods have been deployed their socioeconomic impact can be quantified. Survey results can also identify sites where permanent sample plots should be established for more intensive assessments. Sample sites would be regularly monitored for disease incidence, severity, and efficacy of control methods. Data produced can determine disease spread and help to evaluate socioeconomic impact and deployment of locally appropriate control options. This system would increase productivity, decrease potential losses and empower small farmers with increased access to practical, scientific best practices information.

The ability to collect information in any location and store it in a spatial database can enable improved processes and new efficiencies in a variety of sectors. Grameen Foundation would like to determine whether this system can be adapted for use on a wider scale by customizing the system to fit other crops or adapting the system to be used for other activities associated with small farmer agriculture.

Observations and outcomes of this pilot phase will be used to refine the business and operational model utilizing the CKW network for launch on a potentially wider scale. To this end, the pilot will, in particular but not exclusively, aim to determine:

–       a viable business model that can sustain the cost of using CKWs as data collectors and information agents for continual surveillance of crop disease

–       what specific categories of information do agriculture organizations targeting small farmers demand: this insight will be used to extend the scope of the application where appropriate, in terms of content areas covered, survey methodology and intervention strategies;

–       a utility of providing location-specific digital mapping of crop disease/pest incidence, both in terms of how useful the information is and whether it provides a value-add to pre-existing agriculture extension services;

–       what role intermediaries, including agriculture–focused NGOs, government agencies, and international development organizations can play in the delivery of awareness raising programs in rural areas utilizing the CKW network or direct SMS communication to farming communities

–       an assessment of CKW skills as a data collector, information distributor and community mobilization agent

–       how the data captured through the CKW network might be impactful – for instance the development of a community based early warning system (targeting disease outbreak and quarantine protocol);

–       how to transform traditional paper-based agriculture extension services currently practiced into a streamlined paperless system utilizing currently available technology to efficiently collect and distribute information – thereby creating new knowledge sharing processes, decreasing data entry errors and time (and the associated administration and operational costs) and developing the next generation agriculture extension officer (who is technologically enabled and community based)

Special thanks to Fen Beed, Head Plant Pathologist for IITA East Africa, for contributing to the content above.

In the first quarter of 2009 alone, three new crop diseases have struck East Africa. The Cassava Streak Virus, Banana Bunchy Top Virus and a mutation of the Banana Bacterial Wilt have attacked and devastated farms around the region, exacerbating the prevailing food crisis. But do Uganda’s agricultural scientists have the potential to confront the numerous challenges? Training CKWs to assess large numbers of growers through systematic and quantitative surveillance can become a promising system for any agriculture based organization to leverage. A mobile crop monitoring system will ultimately allow Research Institutions to target data collection, analyze collected data in a centralized platform, visualize information in a digital map, interact directly with small farmers in the field and pinpoint the location of potential ecological threats (for data validation through soil and plant sampling or for implementing emergency quarantine protocol). Knowing where a disease occurs allows organizations such as IITA to target particular areas and plan control programs. This requires careful organization and mobilization of resources. Even though IITA already has effective recommendations for managing Banana Disease, it lacks mechanisms for presenting them directly to farmers and monitoring their uptake. This Community Knowledge Worker initiative addresses this issue by training CKWs and enabling them with sophisticated mobile technology to provide direct action to help small farmers in remote areas and provide a Research Institution with a local link to monitor changes in disease management. It is important to undertake systematic and comprehensive surveys of banana growing areas to get an update on the distribution of banana disease and control strategies being used by growers. The surveys provide the opportunity to determine spread and identify reasons why control strategies may not have been adopted. Where control methods have been deployed their socioeconomic impact can be quantified. Survey results can also identify sites where permanent sample plots should be established for more intensive assessments. Sample sites would be regularly monitored for disease incidence, severity, and efficacy of control methods. Data produced can determine disease spread and help to evaluate socioeconomic impact and deployment of locally appropriate control options. This system would increase productivity, decrease potential losses and empower small farmers with increased access to practical, scientific best practices information. The ability to collect information in any location and store it in a spatial database can enable improved processes and new efficiencies in a variety of sectors. Grameen Foundation would like to determine whether this system can be adapted for use on a wider scale by customizing the system to fit other crops or adapting the system to be used for other activities associated with small farmer agriculture. Observations and outcomes of this pilot phase will be used to refine the business and operational model utilizing the CKW network for launch on a potentially wider scale. To this end, the pilot will, in particular but not exclusively, aim to determine:-       a viable business model that can sustain the cost of using CKWs as data collectors and information agents for continual surveillance of crop disease-       what specific categories of information do agriculture organizations targeting small farmers demand: this insight will be used to extend the scope of the application where appropriate, in terms of content areas covered, survey methodology and intervention strategies;-       a utility of providing location-specific digital mapping of crop disease/pest incidence, both in terms of how useful the information is and whether it provides a value-add to pre-existing agriculture extension services;-       what role intermediaries, including agriculture–focused NGOs, government agencies, and international development organizations can play in the delivery of awareness raising programs in rural areas utilizing the CKW network or direct SMS communication to farming communities –       an assessment of CKW skills as a data collector, information distributor and community mobilization agent-       how the data captured through the CKW network might be impactful – for instance the development of a community based early warning system (targeting disease outbreak and quarantine protocol);-       how to transform traditional paper-based agriculture extension services currently practiced into a streamlined paperless system utilizing currently available technology to efficiently collect and distribute information – thereby creating new knowledge sharing processes, decreasing data entry errors and time (and the associated administration and operational costs) and developing the next generation agriculture extension officer (who is technologically enabled and community based)  Special thanks to Fen Beed, Head Plant Pathologist for IITA East Africa, for contributing to the content above.