1. ICT in Agriculture at the World Bank
CRS ICT4D 4th Annual Conference
March 27th-March 29th, 2012
Cory Belden

2. Why are we here? ICT Context Agricultural Context Cost-effectiveness &
Centrality of agriculture to development
New and old challenges facing agriculture
Increased private sector involvement
Agricultural Context
The rise of rural connectivity
Enormous diversity of applications and software
ICT Context
Cost-effectiveness
&
efficiency
“Agribusiness is the mining sector 20 years ago” – Juergen Voegele, private sector expansion
Firstly, the rise of rural connectivity as well as affordability of applications has made ICT relevant to poor smallholder farmers, particularly mobile phones. This has created enormous amount of diversity in implementation as well as a great deal of participation from communities, governments, NGOs, the private sector, and others.
We started the project aware of two main points. Firstly, that agriculture is critical to poverty reduction, food security, and economic growth but also facing severe and new challenges such as climate change, population growth, changes in global markets, and price volatility.
Finally, while we saw the potential in ICT to transform agriculture, we also observed that impacts, research and lessons learned on the sector is anecdotal and not cohesive. So the sourcebook aimed to change this.
---ICTs hold great promise for transforming agriculture, but research and lessons learned are scattered and mostly anecdotal---

3. ICT in Agriculture e-Sourcebook
Connecting Smallholders to Knowledge, Networks, & Institutions
OVERVIEW

4. Expanding Our Knowledge
THE SOURCEBOOK IS:
Two-year long effort to synthesize and develop reliable information
about the potential of ICTs in agriculture and experiences
Effort to spark enthusiasm about promising applications and tools
Contributions from 50+ experts (internal and external)
Over 200 examples from six regions (including OECD countries)
Easy to use, modular structure—agricultural sub-sectors
Challenges, key enablers, lessons learned...
THE SOURCEBOOK IS NOT:
A cookbook!
An academic paper!
A policy report!

5. Module Topics Markets & Value Chains Cross-Cutting Themes
Access & Affordability
Agricultural Marketing
The Role of Mobiles
Supply Chain Inclusion
Gender Equality
Risk Management
Enhancing Productivity
Food Safety & Traceability
Increasing Productivity
Public Service Provision
Agricultural Innovation Systems
Governance & Participation
Financial Services
Land Administration
Farmer Organizations
Forest Governance

6. Apps, software, projects, and more apps!
Ones you’ve heard of…
Ones perhaps you haven’t…
Reuters Market Light
Nokia Life Tools
Digital Green
Ushahidi
Kencall
Kilimo Salama
mKrishi
AgriManagr
Grameen CKW
Indiagriline
Shellcatch
Agropedia
TIPCEE
SIBWA
KAINet
TECA
Txteagle
KAPC (carbon)
M-climate, Turkey
RFID, Botswana
Biometrics
L3F (India)
SOUNONG
ZNFU SMS
Nit. Sensors
And many more!
MTZL
e-Choupal
Esoko
ACDI/VOCA
DrumNet
Farm Radio
M-PESA
IFFCO IKSL

7. So here is a screen shot of the website– go over and explain or show on Internet

8. How does the World Bank fit into the global movement on ICT?

9. AND! Over-focus on basic ICT tools (e.g. computers for admin)
ICT Component in 1,300 out of 1,700 projects
4 projects
94 projects
24 projects
77 projects
144 projects
96 projects
35 projects
75 projects
83 projects
258 projects
140 projects
17 projects
106 projects
Financial Management, Procurement
Energy and Mining
Social Development
Water
Transport
Urban Development
Environment
Social Protection
Health, Nutrition and Population
Financial, Private Sector Development
Agriculture and Rural Development
Education
Economic Policy, Poverty Reduction
Public Sector Governance
100%
56.3%
58.5%
58.8%
64.9%
70.1%
71.4%
72.1%
78.3%
81.4%
85.9%
89.5%
98.1%
BUT! 40% of projects do not achieve their objectives
AND! Over-focus on basic ICT tools (e.g. computers for admin)

10. What’s next at the World Bank?
Module on operational challenges (the ‘how’)
Collaboration between ICT and ARD Sector Units (critical!)
Building a roster of experts/community of practice (public & private)
Trainings and workshops, conferences (like this one!)
Focus on e-extension and M&E
Continued updates on the website (following the evolution)
e-forums with FAO & e-agriculture community (sharing)
Additional analytical work (what works and what doesn’t and why)
Task force on ICT in Agriculture

11. e-Forums, two down with more to come!
PURPOSE: dissemination, learning, operations, networking
With who? FAO, e-agriculture
community, companies, other agencies
First e-forum: Strengthening Agricultural Marketing (Module 9), Dec 2011
Second e-forum: ICT Innovation for Green Growth (Modules 11 and 5), March 2012
1,000+ views and 100 posts
Summaries posted after forums
Subject matter experts include participants from both World Bank and other agencies. Shaun Ferris from CRS, Bruce Campbell from CGIAR, and reps from companies like Reuters Market Light. So please participate in the next one! (which should be happening around the end of May/beg of June).

12. Discussion: Tough Decisions and Change Mgmt
Tapping new ways of doing development work
Supporting marketing with donor funds?
Private “crowding in”– challenges & opportunities (getting past the pilot stage)
Collaboration btn IT and sector expertise (design & other stages)
Do we need to do some priority-setting?
Analytics vs. trainings and creation
Rural infrastructure vs. app development
Client focus– is it really there?
Knowledge sharing and learning
What expertise does it take to create effective solutions and how can we build them strategically in our agencies/NGOs?
Supporting “marketing”-- need funds for marketing purposes (eg creating demand/awareness), which donors have previously been hesitant to provide. Another problem is that the loans are not small enough for these purposes or for innovation competition purposes.
Private crowding in”– fee for service doesn’t usually work, this is why the government needs to be involved to provide services to poor. However, new models like ‘embedded services’ (provides a service for no charge, but it does so to generate demand or strengthen customer loyalty to the provider’s main, chargeable product or service) and ‘freemium’ models (where the basic service is free and add-ons are additional money, like RML) are showing promise. Need to figure out better how the private and public sector can work together.
Collaboration– new ICT Knowledge Platform in the ICT Sector Unit for consulting services, aiming to target and support different sectors in the Bank.
Demand-side approach

13. Resources www.ICTinAgriculture.org
ICT in Agriculture Sourcebook (2011) and website
Agriculture Innovation Systems Investment Sourcebook (2012)
What the website offers:
m-ARD Report (ICT Sector Unit & Intel, 2012)
e-Agriculture & FAO online community (e-forums)
e-Transform Agriculture Report