FARA (Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa) has published a current inventory of innovative farmer advisory services or systems (Innovative Farmer Advisory Systems using ICTs).
The inventory features currently existing projects, or projects in the design phase and intended for implementation in Africa. The reference it provides is extensive and includes projects concerning voice information delivery services, dial-up and reglar radio broadcasts, video learning and e-learning for basic skills and farming. The collection dedicates a whole section on “Extension Services Based on Mobile Phone and Database Monitoring.” That section covers many of the projects pursuing the implementation of mobile markets in African countries and listed in the section ICT4D Projects.
The FARA farmer information services inventory was created with input from the Regional Agricultural Information and Learning Systems (RAILS) group, the Knowlwdge Management for Development (KM4Dev), the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (CTA), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and others. The FARA inventory is certainly of considerable value for the mapping of projects aimed at the implementation of mobile markets for agricultural goods. Due to the comprehensive nature of the inventory I will shortly be updating the project descriptions in the section ICT4D Projects.
