AGCommons : An Attempt to Improve Farm Productivity and Profitability

A Typical Scenario
Like many Kenyan farmers, Mary relies on her own instincts and local sources of knowledge to decide which crops to plant, how best to grow them, and when to harvest them. Although it’s a harsh life full of uncertainties, Mary draws a little comfort from knowing that she is not alone. You see, like more than 70 percent of rural Africans who live in poverty, Mary depends on agriculture for her family's food and livelihood.

However, instincts and limited local knowledge are sometimes not enough. Kenyan farmers often see their farms and livelihoods wiped out by weather patterns, crop diseases, or inadequate access to support services, infrastructure and markets. And when Mary has no crops to reap come harvest time, her family goes hungry.

Although a farm’s location greatly affects its chance for success and productivity, local farmers like Mary do not have timely access to location-specific information that could help them plan better and use their resources in the most productive and profitable ways. And even though Mary knows local conditions best, she has no easy way to relay this information to help further improve the quality of services they receive.

If Mary could be provided with relevant and timely information, it would help maximize the effectiveness of her land, labor and other assets through, for example, higher crop and livestock yields and better market prices. Presently, though, the dream of an improved livelihood and welfare for Mary and other rural households is just that: a dream.

Perhaps it would help to ease Mary’s burden if she knew that AGCommons, a new initiative that just got underway, is exploring different way of making sure that she and other farmers like her get the necessary information that could help safeguard their crops and ensure a fair price at the market place.

AGCommons’ Role
The AGCommons Program recognizes the importance of the different kinds of geospatial information available to help farmers make better decisions, while acknowledging that there is insufficient access to such information, especially in Africa where it is, ironically, needed the most.

Initiated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, AGCommons is being administrated by the CGIAR in partnership with a few other organizations. The Program is looking into ways of getting location-specific data and information services to farmers like Mary in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Future
In the future, Mary will have access to the sort of information that can be used to decide which types of crops will flourish best in her farm’s soil. She will also receive information about current prices via cell phone, enabling her to get a good price for her crops. She will also get assistance to apply certain technologies to boost her productivity. She can also call others to pass on timely information about, say, crop pests. All this for a woman who has never used a phone before!

Our Commitment
The CGIAR is committed to providing accessible, helpful, and effective geospatial solutions to farmers like Mary as one step toward alleviating poverty, improving nutritional health, and transforming farming into a profitable, business-oriented enterprise for smallholder farmers in developing countries around the world.

Sometimes, dreams do come true.

We welcome feedback on the ICT-KM News, so please feel free to contact us at ictkm@cgiar.org