Agriculture, Supply Chain, Best Practices, Markets Pedro Lichtle Mian Ahsan Ahmed Aadam Soorma Ying Li

Nokia Life

Localized information including weather conditions, advice about crop cycles, general tips and techniques, as well as market prices for crops. Farmers in the pilot scheme said getting daily prices on their phones reduced their dependency on agents for basic information, enabling them to negotiate with greater confidence.

Nokia Life Nokia Life was launched in 2009 for “emerging market” customers Started in India; has been rolled out in Indonesia, China & Nigeria ◦ Farmers pay $1/month for the service Farmers receive customizable daily text updates: ◦ Growing advice, weather forecasts, market prices

Nokia Life Farmers have seen drastic improvements in their farm output ◦ It’s considered an “agricultural input cost” due to necessity ◦ It has removed the “guesswork” associated with pricing ◦ Can farm more confidently Still room for improvement ◦ Farmers request customer service via photo uploading  Example: farmer sends in photo of infected crop  Farmer receives a diagnosis reply with treatment advice

Financial Times Article Last week’s Financial Times ran a relevant article ◦ Mobile devices: Phones give farmers an edge when in the field ◦ Nov. 21, 2012 ◦ feabdc0.html#axzz2DNO6wtz6

ICT Solutions in Pakistan Video on ICT Agriculture Video– ICT based agriculture- solutions in Pakistan Video– ICT based agriculture- solutions in Pakistan --By CABI

Question: 1. Briefly describe(in a few sentences) the goal of ICT implementation into agriculture markets. 2. If CABI conducts a follow up study, how can they increase user feedback and streamline support units? 3. What can be done differently in a following study?

Promoting ICT investment in Cassava Value Chains in Nigeria What is a value chain? Cassava is consumed by 80% of people living in rural Nigeria daily. How can ICT be used to promote the productivity and growth of firms? Show how firm characteristics such of SME’s influence ICT effectiveness. Study conducted involved growers, processors and marketers.

Questions Out of the three categories, growers, processors and markets, who are most likely to reap the benefits of using ICT and why? Why does ICT ownership have more of an influence on SME output than ICT investment or frequency of use?

Linking Supply Chain Markets Developed countries—Australia Problem: Primary grocery producers ineffectively participate in supply chain a). Australia’s uneven geographic spread. A small number of large cities.vs. the vast and sparsely populated rural areas. b). Primary grocery producers don’t have time to access the internet. They have to spend most of their time in the field. c).Grocery industry was mainly controlled by two major retail chains: Woolworths and Coles.

Question: How to use technology to help organic primary producers enhance information access and provision, so as to improve the integration into the grocery supply chain? （ Australia has strong mobile support. ）

Solutions: Design: A mobile commerce technology for organic primary producers effective participation in the grocery supply chain.

MobiCert Login and Home Screen

Mobile Application Name : MobiCert Functions: Record-keeping; Database access; Weather Information; Information access and provision and community features into one platform.

Benefits a). Accessing and exchanging information in filed using a mobile device. b). The approved input database allows organic producers to check any input quickly. c). Improving the communication between organic primary producers and strengthen their inter-relationship.

COMMONSense Net: A Wireless Sensor Network for Resource- Poor Agriculture in the Semiarid Areas of Developing Countries Panchard, J., Rao, S., Prabhakar, T. V., Hubaux, J. P., & Jamadagni, H. S. (2007)

Key Issues Resource-poor farmers High rate of suicides Increasing debt Crop failure

Solution Improving environment monitoring Providing decision-support system Using technologies ◦ Wireless sensor networks (WSNs)

Design and Implementation Use of participatory and iterative design Employment of a field survey (10 months, 3 villages) Deployment of WSNs (fully scalable) ◦ Calibration ◦ Alert ◦ Soil Moisture Prediction ◦ Water Requirements Assessment

Reliable Data Gathering Source:

Bicycle Datamule Source:

WSNs’ Characteristics ConsiderationsLimitations (first results) Minimum Range of 100m (Up to 1km is desirable) Durability of nodes of 6 months (cropping season) Ideally using alkaline batteries or small solar panel Range of 200m Durability of nodes of 2 months (soil moisture use just 1 month) Alkaline batteries

Improvements (1st Iteration) New wireless sensor platform ◦ Range from 300m to 1km ◦ More attractive power consumption New data acquisition board ◦ Customized for soil moirture ◦ 3.6-V lithium battery New software ◦ Life-time of up to 5 years

Questions Is the project succesful? How could you improve the COMMONSense Net project? ◦ Scalability ◦ Economic Sustainability Do you think that the COMMONSense Net project should be replicated in other developing countries? Why? ◦ Design/implementation gaps: hybrids ◦ Computer literate operators