Tag: communication
Mobile applications in improving communication and information delivery for agricultural development in Uganda: challenges and opportunities
Small scale farmers inhabiting the highly dissected highlands in Kabale district, Uganda lack access to appropriate information necessary to apply methods and technologies for increasing agricultural productivity and improving the management of the natural resource base. Their information needs are characteristically changing over time in such a way that they required access to certain information not available due to limiting communication services. To address this shortcoming, African highlands Initiative (AHI) designed an action research project funded by IDRC through its ACACIA initiative, which introduced an effective information chain to connect farmers to appropriate information providers through telecentres and village information centres. The centres were equipped with portable phones among other information and communication technologies including print materials like leaflets, brochures, pamphlets, research report and books. The paper discusses the dynamics of using portable phones among small holder farmers isolating strength, weakness and threats while analysing insights associated with results patterns. Research findings showed that use of phone was appreciated by rural communities as easy, fast and convenient way to communicate and get prompt answers of respective problems. Farmers were more excited about the use of phone than other information and communication technologies. Use of mobile phones to access information differed from one parish to another. Information on marketing is mostly needed (100%), post-harvest handling (98%), improved seed management (93%) and natural resources management (71%). Further, it was revealed that generally more male farmers (59.3%) used phones than female farmers (40.7%). However more female farmers (66.7%) requested information on NRM and agriculture compared to male farmers (33.3%). Despite some challenges such as poor phone network and distances from calling centre, the use of phone in the study area was accompanied by positive outcomes, and opened a range of opportunities including emerging of strong social groups working together collectively to achieve a common goal. This is demonstrated by farmers coming together to market their produce. Based on project results the fastest growth of the mobile in the country provides opportunities for various actors along commodity chain (production to end user) to look into possibilities of using mobile applications to boost agricultural development that accounts for 30.2 % of the county’s GDP.
The impact of COVID-19 on public perceptions of wild meat in Central Africa
Wild meat is a significant source of food and income generation in Central Africa. However, there is little knowledge of how the assumed link between COVID-19 and wild meat consumption has been discussed by the media and received by the public. In this study, we conducted media content analysis of 264 articles published in 2019–2020 related to wild meat consumption in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Gabon and Republic of the Congo and carried out mobile phone surveys with 3644 respondents in Cameroon and DRC in 2021; among those who answered the area question, 912 respondents were from villages, 1166 from towns, and 1199 from cities. We found that COVID-19 increased media discussion of wild meat across all three countries since February 2020. Despite the dominant media discourse focussing on disease risk associated with wild meat (61%), over one-third of respondents considered domestically raised red meat as the riskiest meat. The theory that COVID-19 originated in laboratories was observed both in the media (10%) and among phone survey respondents (7% Cameroonian, 9% DRC respondents). About half (47%) of Cameroonian respondents and one-third (38%) of DRC respondents reported a reduction in wild meat consumption in the surveyed period in 2021 with the most frequent reason being perceived risks of infectious disease. Conversely, some (3% Cameroonian, 32% DRC respondents) increased their wild meat consumption mainly due to the reduced availability of other meats. Our results suggest that COVID-19 brought increased media attention to wild meat consumption and changed public perceptions and stated consumption behaviours related to wild meat consumption in Central Africa. Bans on trading wild meat were widely discussed in the media as a potential policy response to COVID-19, but there was a lack of consensus among respondents that this would be the most appropriate policy: more than half of respondents did not support a ban on wild meat consumption. If policymakers wish to reduce wild meat consumption in Central African countries, trustworthy communication strategies and access to alternative food sources will be needed.
Bridging the gap: how can information access and exchange between conservation biologists and field practitioners be improved for better conservation outcomes?
It is widely accepted that there is a considerable gap between the science of conservation biology and the design and execution of biodiversity conservation projects in the field and science is failing to inform the practice of conservation. There are many reasons why this implementation gap exists. A high proportion of papers published in scientific journals by conservation biologists are seldom read outside of the academic world and there are few incentives for academics to convert their science into practice. In turn, field practitioners rarely document their field experiences and experiments in a manner that can meaningfully inform conservation scientists. Issues related to access to scientific literature, scientific relevance in multidisciplinary environments, donor expectations and a lack of critical analysis at all levels of conservation theory and practice are factors that exacerbate the divide. The contexts in which conservation biologists and field practitioners operate are also often highly dissimilar, and each has differing professional responsibilities and expectations that compromise the ability to learn from each other’s expertise. Building on recent debate in the literature, and using case studies to illustrate the issues that characterize the divide, this paper draws on the authors’ experiences of project management as well as academic research. We identify five key issues related to information exchange: access to scientific literature, levels of scientific literacy, lack of interdisciplinarity, questions of relevance and lack of sharing of conservation-related experiences and suggest new ways of working that could assist in bridging the gap between conservation scientists and field practitioners.
Integrated information and communication technologies for farm-level access to natural resource management information: case of South western Uganda
Small-scale farmers inhabiting the highly dissected highlands in Kabale district, Uganda lack access to appropriate information necessary to apply methods and technologies for sustainable land management for increased agricultural productivity. The farmers’ information needs are characteristically changing over time while access to information is often poor due to limitations in communication services. To address this shortcoming, African highlands Initiative (AHI) implemented a project which integrated information and communication technologies that connected farmers to appropriate information using multiple information sources and media including telecentres and village information centres. The centres were equipped with portable phones, printed materials like leaflets, brochures, pamphlets, research reports and books. This paper discusses the dynamics of using integrated information and communication technologies among smallholder farmers isolating challenges and opportunities while analysing insights associated with results patterns. Research findings showed that rural communities appreciated the use of integrated information and communication technologies as convenient way to communicate and get desired information. Farmers were more excited about the use of phones than other information and communication technologies like radio and the print media. There was a dynamic use of mobile phones for accessing information at parish level. The radio messages also offered prices of selected commodities in different markets within the district and in other neighbouring towns in the region. The information enabled the farmers to bargain for higher produce prices. Print media were particularly useful for information on sustainable land management. Different print media in the form of leaflets, pamphlets, booklets and posters were developed both in English and local languages and disseminated to village information centres and telecentres
Taking profit from the growing use of mobile phone in Benin: a contingent valuation approach for market and quality information access
An information systems-adapted Contingent Valuation survey was used to assess smallholder farmers’ perceptions and the premium they are willing to pay (WTP) to get mobile phone-based information on market prices and product quality to overcome the recurrent information asymmetry issues in the chain. The investigations, consisting of an exploratory case study in Ghana followed by a survey with 285 observations in Benin, demonstrated that market information asymmetry indeed leads to lower prices for farmers. In Ghana, market price alerts through mobile phone messaging allowed decreasing transaction costs for farmers from US $2 to US $150 per transaction. In Benin, most farmers who are using mobile phones are WTP a premium of up to US$2.5 per month to get market price and quality information. Econometric models showed that decisive factors for the premium to be paid include farm location, market channel, profit margin, contact with agricultural extension services and technical support from buyers. The study suggests a multi-stakeholders’ platform for an efficient and sustainable mobile phone-based market information system in agri-food chains.
The forest of information: beating paths through the jungle
In this article an outline is given of the history of information and publishing in forestry, communications technology is described (including mobile computing, GIS and satellite observations), and the future exchange of information via the Internet and web-based services is discussed. Two examples show the use of computer technology and decision support systems to prepare a forest management plan and to purchase a hardwood table for the garden. A section is included on The Global Forest Information Service (GFIS), being developed by IUFRO, which is based on a distributed network of metadatabases which catalogue the information resources (digitalized or not) of contributing partners.