The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) recently convened a conference on ‘ict4ag – the digital springboard for inclusive agriculture.’ Held in Kigali, it brought together many innovations and experiences on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to build trust and deliver targeted real time information in agriculture development. The LIVES knowledge management expert Fanos Mekonnen participated on behalf of the project.

Mobile applications (both for dumb and smart phones) are emerging as promising options to inform smallholder producers and provide market information and advisory services.Experiences such as iCow, esoko , Farmer line, and mkisan  offer much to learn from.

Farmers use these applications to reach out to experts or to get market information, through SMS or voice mail. These tools and applications not only provide information; they develop capacity, create linkages and create inspiration to do and be more.

This event highlighted the…