Rural subsistence farmers in Africa face various challenges daily that make the work especially difficult. For one, most of Africa is lacking in adequate infrastructure for a successful trade network, which makes moving harvests difficult in general. Additionally, there is a lack of accessible banking options for farmers which makes saving whatever money earned practically impossible. Beyond this, there is little infrastructure for irrigation or energy, which are essential to a productive farm. Although these problems are being addressed by certain African governments, the progress is slow and each country is moving at their own pace.

In the past years, Mobile Information and Communication Technologies—also known as ICT—are stepping into the space in order to assist farmers work around the challenges listed above and more. In this post, we will go over some of the most prominent challenges facing farmers in Africa and how ICT are aiding these individuals to provide a sustainable livelihood for themselves.

Challenges for the Rural Farmer in Africa

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN details some of the challenges of subsistence farmers in Africa. They are, as a whole, food insecure, living in poverty or extreme poverty; they have limited access to education and markets, they use family labor for agricultural activities, and they tend to participate in the informal economy. Their land is usually smallholdings, and at least half of women farmers do not own their land. The most immediate effects of these challenges are on the health of the family, the education of the children, and limited access to participate in formal financial systems.

Financial Inclusion

Information and communication technology organizations have developed mobile applications—like mobile wallets and other emerging financial technologies—that can run on all mobile phone types, which have begun providing farmers with access to very basic banking. This is spurring a critical move from the informal to the formal economy for these farmers. It is such an instrumental shift because access to banking allows farmers to establish legal identity, open bank accounts, begin saving money, and access microinsurance and microcredit.

With access to savings, insurance, and credit, farmers can take better care of their farms. Credit can be used for soil amendments and livestock purchases for example. Insurance can protect the farmer in case of a drought, and savings can soften the blow of a low-yield harvest.

New financial technologies, powered by mobile phones and apps, have allowed microfinance companies to move into rural areas without traditional transportation infrastructure as well as begin to bring financial services to vulnerable, excluded populations, which is changing the agricultural industry in Africa as a whole.

Climate change and drought

Climate change and drought remain significant challenges to the agricultural sector in Africa. While climate change is only one of the factors impacting the current drought cycle in Africa, the impacts of global warming on fragile regions has the potential to bring long term desertification and devastating famine to these regions.

Drought, responsible for 80% of the crop failure in sub-Saharan Africa, impacts agriculture through both changes in rain, weather patterns, and evaporation of groundwater resources. Climate change worsens drought by increasing the evaporation of groundwater, impacting groundwater resources such as aquifers, and changes in patterns of rain that keep soil from holding water long enough to grow food.

ICT companies have developed mobile phone applications that are basic enough to work on any mobile phone type. Through these applications, organizations are able to reach rural farmers remotely with information on how to protect and grow their crops despite unpredictable weather patterns or drought conditions. This information is extremely valuable to farmers struggling to save their harvest and investment.

Information sent to farmers through these mobile apps can be varied based on the location of the farmer and the conditions the farmer is experiencing. Examples of topics include techniques for growing through a drought, new options for drought-resistant seeds, amendments to improve the water carrying ability of the soil, techniques for the proper storage and shipping of food, technical information on agriculture typically inaccessible by the farmers, etc. Access to information such as this is revolutionary to a farmer in Africa and is instrumental in building up food security and alleviating poverty in the continent.

Gender Inequality

Gender inequality remains problematic in Africa, despite advances such as Kenya’s new constitution that allows land ownership and inheritance for women. At this time, half of women farmers do not own their land. Not having access to the title of land means they do not have any collateral to access financial services, such as drought insurance or credit to improve irrigation and soil health. Many women in rural Africa do not have any formal identification, such as birth certificates or government identification cards. This precludes their ability to access formal financial systems. Without land ownership, they cannot join farming cooperatives, access transportation resources to get food to market, or take advantage of education programs offered to regional farmers.

The most immediate and significant impact of these gender-based social systems is that women cannot participate in the free market. Without access to transportation and cooperatives, they have to sell their crops to local middlemen and others who travel to them. Without access to knowledge of current crop prices, they take what is offered. Many farmers have to guarantee the sale of a crop at a set price in order to be advanced seed and soil amendments at the beginning of the growing season.

Social support is now available to these afflicted women due to mobile ICT. Mobile applications have been developed that connect these women with information on how to combat gender-based obstacles for female African farmers. The apps equip female farmers in Africa with the knowledge they need to solve their own issues such as how to obtain legal identity and how to apply for land ownership– all delivered to a small device in the palm of their hands.

Access to markets

Access to markets is the most critical factor for subsistence farmers that can be directly impacted in a number of ways by the use of mobile information and communications technologies. Information about transportation availability, the state of the roads, proper storage, packing, and shipping, current prices across a region, and other types of critical information can be accessed immediately by farmers through mobile apps developed by ICT organizations. This access to information about market prices, road conditions, etc. is crucial for farmers to get valuable profit out of their yields.

ICT technologies are an innovative solution to continent-wide issues for farmers in Africa and the future of ICT for farming is now. The rate of change in the industry is accelerating. New technology is opening avenues of communication and services for those in geographically and socially isolated regions. One critical piece, however, is ensuring that those working in development and planning have access to the most accurate and up to date information.

By using mobile phones that are already in the hands of farmers across rural Africa, GeoPoll can gather granular information from farmers themselves. The resulting insights can assist developers, researchers, and analysts produce even more effective strategies for using ICT to develop the agricultural industry in Africa. For this purpose, GeoPoll recently released an extensive report containing data specific to agriculture in Kenya. To conduct a similar study for your organization, contact us today!

The post How Mobile ICT is Changing Agriculture in Africa appeared first on GeoPoll.

GeoPoll is pleased to announce the launch of its new farmer panel in Kenya, consisting of over 18,000 farmers who are ready to take GeoPoll surveys. Agricultural research organizations, international and local NGOs, governments, donors, and consumer companies can collect insights directly from individual farmers and use this information to improve farmer outcomes and grow profit margins. GeoPoll’s initial farmer panel in Kenya has been recruited over the past two months through a partnership with MediaE – who create educational information for farmers through media including radio, TV, and print – and Kenyan agricultural TV show Shamba Shape Up. GeoPoll plans to expand our farmer recruitment efforts to additional countries over the coming months – to learn more about our country coverage or partner with us, please contact us.

Conducting Mobile Surveys with Farmers

Conducting surveys of farmers has been a topic of interest for many of GeoPoll’s partners, due to the wide-ranging effects of agriculture on local livelihoods, national economies, and related industries in the agricultural value chain. Smallholder farmers, those who farm on small plots without much external labor, are an incredibly important part of producing the crops we rely on across the globe, but it can be hard for governments, NGOs, and companies to reach these farmers and gain knowledge about their farming practices. This is especially true when they are located in rural areas, as is the case for many farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa.

GeoPoll has previously worked with organizations including CIMMYT, IFPRI, and Farm Radio International to survey farmers who grow specific crops, and we are excited to expand this effort by recruiting farmers in Kenya who are ready to take GeoPoll’s mobile surveys. Organizations can set up a one-time survey or regular, recurring surveys with GeoPoll’s farmer panel to gather ongoing data on weather patterns, land preparation growth progress, crop or input prices, and more.

GeoPoll can employ its full suite of mobile survey modes to reach its farmer panel, including SMS surveys, voice calls (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing or Interactive Voice Response), or online survey modes such as mobile web or mobile application. Using the GeoPoll mobile application, farmers can upload pictures to demonstrate crop progress based on the use of different seeds or fertilizers and can access other tools such as GeoPoll community polls, where app users can ask each other questions. Organizations with existing farmer databases can also use GeoPoll’s platform to engage with them via one- or two-way messages.

Data on Agriculture in Kenya

As part of this launch, GeoPoll will release an in-depth examination of our survey results on agriculture in Kenya, based on responses from over 900 respondents on a wide range of topics. The survey information areas include preferred crop types, use of inputs such as fertilizer and seeds, information on where crops are sold, external factors affecting yield, and insights into the biggest challenges facing farmers in Kenya today. The survey has a gender split of 54% female to 46% male, an age breakdown of 32% age 15-24, 34% 25-34, and 33% age 35+, and respondents from locations throughout Kenya.

Initial high-level insights show that 48% both grow crops and raise livestock, and 44% report they engage in commercial farming as opposed to subsistence farming. Of those who engage in commercial farming, just 7% sell to international or export markets, with the vast majority reporting they sell goods to local markets. Regarding farm size and income, 68% identify farming as their main source of income, and 80% of respondents report that their farms are under 2 hectares in size.

While 72% report that they are making a profit from their farming activities, farmers in Kenya face a variety of challenges, from pests to drought and seed quality. The changing climate is also a concern, with 27% listing climate one of the key challenges they face, and 50% saying climactic changes have impacted their yields.

In the coming weeks GeoPoll will release a full report with analysis of our in-depth survey with the farming community in Kenya, and over the coming months we will expand this panel to additional countries. To be the first to know about this report, sign up for GeoPoll’s newsletter here. If you’d like to conduct your own custom survey with GeoPoll’s panel of farmers in Kenya or are interested in reaching farmers in other areas around the world, please contact us today.

The post GeoPoll Launches Farmer Panel in Kenya appeared first on GeoPoll.