Information and Communications Technology for Agriculture and Food Security

Increase in the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICTs) has brought significant benefits to the agricultural sector, such as improving households’ agricultural production, generating new job opportunities, and encouraging people to adopt healthier practices and more effective risk management techniques. Recent research shows that ICTs can play an important role in farmers’ ability to access agricultural information and extension services. For example, in Kenya, personalized SMS messages that sent crop management tips and schedules to sugarcane producers were found to increase yields by an average of 11 percent.

ICTs can also improve the poor populations’ access to important nutrition and health information and financial services. In order to expand the understanding of the benefits of these tools and their applications in particular settings, the Food Security Portal (FSP) has tracked a number of ICT initiatives in Africa including the m-Pesa service, which allows mobile phone subscribers to transfer money via text message, was found to significantly improve rural populations’ access to banking services in Kenya; this helped improve farmers’ ability to mitigate negative shocks. Similarly, the Connected Farmer in Eastern Africa allows farmers to receive digital payments and receipts; this helps them establish a documented financial history and thus gain better access to credit.

In the framework of Africa south of the Sahara Food Security Portal project, IFPRI has also recently facilitated a virtual dialogue focused on the use of ICTs, particularly mobile phones, in African agriculture. The event brought together a panel of experts from a variety of academic and research institutions, including CABI/Plantwise, CTA, Catholic Relief Services, the University of Maryland, GEOGLAM, and Mount Kenya University. The dialogue focused on lessons learned from existing ICT programs and platforms, best practices, and potentials and challenges to increasing the use of ICTs in the region and participants agreed that mobile phone technology is in high demand in Africa south of the Sahara because of its relatively low cost, ease of use, and immediately visible benefits. The explosive growth of mobile phone technology in Africa has already increased information-sharing among farmers.

This potential of ICTs to aid in agricultural growth has gained high-level attention as well. At a meeting of the G20 Agriculture Ministers in January 2017, the Ministers released a declaration noting the importance of ICTs for agriculture. The Declaration highlighted ICTS’ potential to provide better integration and efficiency gains in the global food system and called for international organizations, including FAO and IFPRI, to map out existing ICT initiatives in agriculture.

Several challenges remain for the successful, widespread adoption of ICTs for agricultural development stemming mostly from issues of affordability and accessibility. During the IFPRI virtual dialogue, experts raised the idea of government subsidies for Internet, phone data, and insurance services.  The use of subsidies in Rwanda and Kenya has led to increased ICT adoption, and further subsidies could make maintenance of phones and Internet services more affordable and sustainable in the long run. Such subsidies would require close collaboration between private sector service providers and government agencies in order to establish flexible rates that would allow ICTs to both be profitable and continue to be used as an important public good.

Farmers’ capacity to take advantage of new technologies also requires more attention. For example, low literacy rates throughout developing countries can hinder the usefulness of ICT services like SMS messaging to spread important agricultural, market, and nutrition information. In addition, the content shared through ICTs needs to be context-specific in order to be useful to farmers; when farmers are able to clearly see the value of the information being provided, they will be more likely to adopt the technology and put that information to use.