Building Smallholder Resilience by Improving Value-Add in Supply Chains:! The Community Knowledge Worker!!

Transcription

1 Building Smallholder Resilience by Improving Value-Add in Supply Chains:! The Community Knowledge Worker!! Mobile Agriculture! March 2014

2 Grameen Foundation: Our Work Access to Information (Ag, Health, Finance) Access to Financial Services Inclusive Business Tools

3 Uganda 85% rural population High agricultural! employment Subsistence focus Very low productivity

4 Problems faced by Smallholder Farmers Lack of good information Limited access to inputs and market linkages Limited access to financial services

5 Value Proposition of CKW in Uganda The Program Initiated in 2009 Technology focus Support poor farmers Aims Sustainably improve livelihoods Information dissemination Technology solutions Scalable & Replicable High-quality

6 Who have we served?

7 The Community Knowledge Worker Mobile enabled and Community elected Trust relationship with peer farmers Delivering essential information and bridging the "last mile

8 CKW Equipment and Skills Android Phone Solar Charger Scale Training Marketing Support Each CKW Toolkit is Funded by Kiva lenders

9 CKWs use GPS enabled technology CKW Search 47 crops + 10 livestock images CKW Survey Simple touch interface to do complex surveys CKW Pulse Two-way communication app which supports individual and group messaging Field Force Management Field team management, activity monitoring

10 The CKW Program Offering Agricultural Extension Data Collection Field Force Productivity Solutions Real-time Tracking User Dashboards

11 Agriculture Extension Information dissemination at village level Good Agronomic Practices [GAP] Disease Identification and Treatment Information for crops Market Prices Weather Information Android App Agronomic Content CKWs Smallholder Farmers

12 Mobile Data Collection CKWs Android App Smallholder Farmers

13 Field Force Management Real-time Tracking and User Dashboards:

14 Impact and Reach CKW program metrics and indicators: 43 Districts 21,034 Villages Reached 1,359 CKWs 270,220 Farmers 1,465,182 35% 24% 11% Info Searches Female Average Repeat Usage Poverty Reduction

15 Limits with Information Alone +30% Adoption of best practices +22% Higher farm gate prices +17% Increase in farmer knowledge +32% Price knowledge Source: IFPRI 2012, study in one district, n=444

16 Shift Focus Increase adoption Improve use of! agent network Create market linkages

17 Potential for Productivity Improvement Uganda: <5% farmers use fer1lizer (IFPRI, 2012) Produc1onn Yield: 2003= Response to Inputs Scheme (Dorward & Chirwa IJAS 2011) (Malawi, Maize)

18 Opportunities exist to explore market linkages leveraging CKW trusted relationship Inputs Outputs Financial services

19 Case Study: Barriers to finance for SHFs

20 Pilot Project with Opportunity Bank Deeper reach Reduced cost of sale Reduced risk Access to finances Income smoothing Extra Earnings Rural community

21 Key Conclusions CKW as a change agent: Improved knowledge Adoption of GAP Price realization Information alone is not enough to increase production CKWs become trusted agents, who can provide better access to market linkages and finance to farmers Creates bridge to the last mile farmers Helps FI s improve reach and reduce risk to serve SHFs 21

22 Questions?

23 Appendix

24 Case Study: e-extension Pilot in Serere, Uganda -- Dec to April 2013 Background: The Agricultural Technology and Agribusiness Advisory Services Project (ATAAS) was designed to support the implementation of the full national programs of National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) and National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS). The mandate of the project was to support and test key activities along the research-extension-farmer-market value chain continuum through four components: Developing Agricultural Technologies and Strengthening the National Agricultural Research System; Enhancing Partnerships between Agricultural Research, Advisory Services and other Stakeholders; Strengthening the National Agricultural Advisory Services; Supporting Agribusiness Services and Market Linkages; and Program Management.

25 Case Study: Serere Pilot (2/8) Objectives of project: Testing the effectiveness of leveraging mobile technologies and call center capabilities in order to improve the quality of agricultural advice and enable the targeted farmers to provide feedback on the performance of the extension services providers hired by NAADS under the ATAAS project. Testing the feasibility of using mobile technologies and an internet based dashboard for monitoring and evaluating the following 3 ATAAS project outcome indicators: Proportion of men and women perceiving that their voice has been taken into account in the decision making process of the farmer groups Percentage of targeted beneficiaries who are satisfied with the advisory services (by gender) Complaint Handling Mechanism for NAADS established

26 Case Study: Serere Pilot (3/8) Tools: Search Interface

27 Case Study: Serere Pilot (4/8) Tools: Survey Interface

28 Case Study: Serere Pilot (5/8) Tools: Pulse Interface

29 Case Study: Serere Pilot (6/8) Key pilot results: There was an overall impression that using technology was a good mechanism of involving farmers in the NAADS decision making processes The GPS enabled phones improved accountability and follow-up by guiding field officers to locations where NAADS Agricultural Advisory Service Providers (AASPs) had supported farmers. The farmers were happy to have a forum (farmer call center) through which they could provide feedback about the services offered by NAADS NAADS service providers now have quick access to a data bank of agricultural information

30 Case Study: Serere Pilot (7/8) Pilot achievements: It should be noted that achievements below were generated in only three months of the pilot During the pilot period, there was a tremendous increase in interactions between farmers and agricultural advisory service providers. The pilot successfully documented how many farmers were registered, reached and supported. For instance NAADS Agricultural Advisory Service Providers (AASPs) registered 934 individual farmers and provided over two thousand extension messages on water harvesting, post-harvest handling and several impact messages. A total of 5,127 farmers were reached through farmer group trainings and meetings The project promoted accountability through GPS enabled service delivery. It is now possible to trace the work performed by AASPs in a given period of time. In addition, AASPs also have monthly reports on work done on their mobile phones The project has generated confidence in AASPs while supporting farmers. This was demonstrated through farmers confirmation that the AASPs were more confident while offering services because of the availability of information on the mobile phones These results confirm that the e-extension system has a very high potential to complement the traditional extension system especially in reaching the last mile, providing timely support and increasing farming productivity

31 Case Study: Serere Pilot (8/8) Recommendations: Scale up e-extension service to different regions in the country. This will help the NAADS secretariat understand different regional dynamics and plan for better management of a technology based extension service. Pilot the e-extension with already established Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs) in one or more of the 36 districts where they are currently operational. This is critical in understanding and learning best ways to integrate the tradition extension with an e-extension system. Current Status March 2014: Call for Proposal document inviting bids to scale up e-extension model pending approval at local Uganda World Bank office. Once approved, Grameen Foundation will submit a proposal to compete for the bid