Mobile for Development » mAgri Resource

mAgri Webinar: Exploring the Nokia Life Agriculture Service

Mobile for Development — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:44:42 +0000

These slides were presented by Nokia Life representatives during a joint webinar with the GSMA mAgri team on 15^th January 2013. The webinar covered key facts about Nokia Life and specifically, the Nokia Life Agriculture Service. Other topics covered in the webinar included the market need, the user journey, the depth and spread of the service, the content process, the ecosystem of partners and the Nokia Life users.

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Feature your mAgri Product & Service on Mobile and Development Intelligence

Mobile for Development — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:02:36 +0000

To have your mAgri organisation and product/service correctly featured on the GSMA Mobile and Development Intelligence portal, please download and complete this form and return to vclause@gsm.org.

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mAgri Webinar: Mobile market information systems for farmers: requirements for success

Mobile for Development — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 07:46:30 +0000

These are the slides that accompany the mAgri Webinar on “Mobile market information systems for farmers: requirements for success” that took place on 9^th October 2012.

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Focus Note: Designing & Marketing Mobile Information & Advisory Services for Women Smallholders

Mobile for Development — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 07:38:20 +0000

The purpose of this focus note is to introduce the gender theme to the Agri VAS community and share practical, actionable lessons on reaching women (with a focus on service design and marketing). The focus note summarizes insight and best practice provided by subject matter experts during a webinar “Designing & Marketing Mobile Information & Advisory Services for Women Smallholders”.

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GSMA mAgri Infographic: Agricultural Productivity Gap & The Opportunity for Mobile

Mobile for Development — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 07:38:44 +0000

The purpose of this infographic is to highlight 3 main messages:

A vast number of people in developing countries work in agriculture, far more than in the developed world. In fact 99% of all people working in agriculture live in developing countries
Despite this huge proportion of labour force engaged in agriculture in the developing world, there is a productivity gap: in the developing world yields are 60% of those in the developed world
Meanwhile, the growth of mobile phones in emerging markets has been rapid (from 4% penetration in 2000 to 70% in 2010). This presents an exciting opportunity to use mobile technology and infrastructure to deliver critical information to farmers

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mAgri Webinar: Designing & Marketing Mobile Information & Advisory Services for Women Smallholders

Mobile for Development — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:22:50 +0000

These are the slides that accompany the mAgri Webinar on ‘Designing & Marketing Mobile Information & Advisory Services for Women Smallholders’ that occurred on June 27, 2012.

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Facilitating agricultural technology adoption among the poor: The role of service delivery through mobile phones

Center for Development Research — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:18:48 +0000

By Heike Baumüller. The use of mobile phones in poverty reduction and development has ignited much interest over the past decade. To take advantage of the rapid expansion of mobile phones in developing countries, businesses, government agencies and non-governmental organisations are increasingly turning their attention to the delivery of services through mobile phones in areas such as health, education and agriculture. This paper examines how such m-services could be and are already being used to facilitate agricultural technology adoption among farmers in developing countries, including accessing, using and generating income from new technologies. The paper argues that m-services could help to overcome some of the obstacles to technology adoption by facilitating access to information and learning, financial services, and input and output markets. Existing studies assessing the impacts of mobile phones already point to the potential benefits for poverty reduction and rural development. However, there is a risk that the poorest and marginalised may fall behind. Further research is needed to understand how their particular challenges could be addressed through m-services and other support activities, and how they might become active players in the demand for m-services. Such research will need to draw on various disciplines to allow for an analysis of the economic, social and biophysical dimensions of the users, farming contexts and technologies.

Creating Gender-Responsive Agricultural Development Programs

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:57:41 +0000

An orientation document around creating gender-responsive agricultural development programs.

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Power to the Peers: Authority of Source Effects for a Voice-based Agricultural Information Service in Rural India

Stanford University — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:22:06 +0000

Online communities enable people to easily connect and share knowledge across geographies. Mobile phones can enable billions of new users in emerging countries to participate in these online communities. In India, where social hierarchy is important, users may over-value institutionally-recognized authorities relative to peer-sourced content. We tested this hypothesis through a controlled experiment of source authority effects on a voice-based agricultural information service for farmers in Gujarat, India. 305 farmers were sent seven agricultural tips via automated phone calls over a two week period. The same seven tips were each voice-recorded by two university scientists and two peer farmers. Participants received a preview of the tip from a randomly assigned source via the automated call, and played the remainder of the tip by calling a dedicated phone number. Participants called the follow-up number significantly more often when the tip preview was recorded by a peer than a scientist. On the other hand, in interviews conducted both before and after the experiment, a majority of farmers maintained that they preferred receiving information from scientists. This stated preference may have been expressing the more socially acceptable response. We interpret our experimental results as a demonstration of the demand for peer-based agricultural information dissemination. We conclude with design implications for peer-to-peer information services for rural communities in India.

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Kenyan Farmers’ Use of Cell Phones: Calling preferred over SMS

iHub — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:25:53 +0000

By Angela Crandall. The increasing penetration of mobile phones in Kenya has led to a rise in SMS-based information dissemination services. Such services have potential to reduce information asymmetry and empower farmers with weather, market, and other relevant information. However, a number of factors other than the sheer existence of the phone need to be in place for such potential to be realized. Data was gathered using 117 questionnaires administered in 6 Kenyan provinces, as well as 12 focus groups conducted in 4 locations around Kenya. Findings revealed that Kenyan cell phone users still prefer to call rather than SMS (short message service) due to the ease of calling and little practice using SMS. SMS-based information providers should, therefore, consider adding a voice-based product to their services in order to expand their market reach.

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